Brexit news - live: DUP and Sinn Fein argue over NI protocol as voter ID plans deemed ‘deeply damaging’

Sinn Fein and the DUP have traded fresh blows over the Northern Ireland protocol.

During first minister’s questions on Tuesday, the Sinn Fein politician John O’Dowd suggested it was wrong for DUP officials to have met with members of the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), a paramilitary umbrella group.

He alleged that the LCC “are actively now involved in criminality, drug dealing and murder”, but that the DUP sat down with them regardless in a attempt to find “common cause” against the protocol.

Arlene Foster responded by saying her party had always condemned violence and by mentioning Sinn Finn’s links to the IRA.

In non-Brexit news, democracy campaigners have hit out at the government’s plan to require voters to show ID, calling the proposals “deeply damaging”.

Halima Begum, the director of the Runnymede Trust, a race equality think-tank, told The Guardian: “People from black and minority ethnic groups are less likely to be registered to vote, vote and be elected.”

“Many voters do not have photo ID, and that ownership of ID can differ by socioeconomic groups, with citizens from Bame communities at a particular potential disadvantage,” she added.

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