UK blames ‘heavy-handed’ EU for Brexit deal problems

By JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Britain’s Brexit minister has threatened to trigger a contentious break clause in the U.K.’s divorce deal with the European Union. Such a move that would send the U.K.’s already chilly relations with its huge neighbor into a deep freeze. David Frost told a gathering of the U.K.’s governing Conservative Party on Monday that the Brexit agreement, signed by both sides, was undermining peace in Northern Ireland and causing “instability and disruption.” He said unless there are major changes to the deal, Britain will invoke Article 16, a provision that lets either side suspend the agreement in exceptional circumstances. However, Britain has made that threat before, and Frost did not pull the trigger.