N.Ireland minister acted unlawfully in seeking to halt Brexit checks - court

Northern Ireland's agriculture minister acted unlawfully in February when he ordered an immediate halt to checks on food and agricultural goods from Britain to Northern Ireland under post-Brexit trade rules, Belfast's High Court ruled on Thursday.

The order on Feb. 2 by then minister Edwin Poots never came into force after the High Court said two days later that the import checks must remain in place, pending the result of a judicial review on the matter.

Judge Adrian Colton said on Thursday that it appeared that the instruction of Poots, a member of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that has protested against the checks, was motivated by political rather than legal considerations.