A FRESH Brexit dust-up with the EU risks detonating a full-blown trade war and sending food prices soaring.
Britain and Brussels are at loggerheads over the status of Northern Ireland and checks on goods flowing into the country.
Liz Truss is demanding the frustrating red tape harming firms is ripped up – but EU chiefs are refusing to budge.
Now the Foreign Secretary is on the brink of pressing the nuclear button by unilaterally scrapping the hated Northern Ireland Protocol.
EU leaders have warned they could respond by tearing up the whole Brexit deal and slap harsh tariffs on goods.
Erecting trade barriers would almost certainly hike the prices of products from the continent in British shops.
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Ms Truss is phoning her Brussels counterpart Maros Sefcovic tomorrow for a last-ditch effort to find a solution.
So far the two sides have failed to thrash out an agreement, with Ms Truss yesterday rejecting the EU’s latest offer.
She said last night: “The current EU proposals fail to properly address the real issues affecting Northern Ireland and in some cases would take us backward.
“Prices have risen, trade is being badly disrupted, and the people of Northern Ireland are subject to different laws and taxes than those over the Irish Sea, which has left them without an Executive and poses a threat to peace and stability.
“The answer cannot be more checks, paperwork and disruption. Our preference has always been for a negotiated solution but will not shy away from taking action to stabilise the situation in Northern Ireland if solutions cannot be found.”
Ms Truss claims the latest EU proposals tabled last October would slam red tape on Lincolnshire sausages.
She also said that food from outside the EU like Thai green curry ready meals and New Zealand lamb would be blocked from British shops.
