UK says post-Brexit relations with EU bumpy amid border woes

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s chief Brexit minister said Tuesday that relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union have suffered from turbulence since their economic divorce six weeks ago, but he expressed confidence the bloc and its former member would soon enter smoother waters.

Cabinet Minister Michael Gove likened the relationship to a bumpy airplane takeoff that is followed by passengers settling down to enjoy their flight.

“We’re not at the gin and tonic and peanuts stage yet,” Gove told a House of Lords committee. “But I’m sure that we will be.”

David Frost, Britain’s chief Brexit negotiator, told the Lords EU committee that relations had been “more than bumpy.”

“I think it’s been problematic,” he said. “I hope we’ll get over this.”

Britain left the EU politically just over a year ago, and quit the bloc’s economic structures on Dec. 31.

Since then, customs and veterinary checks have been imposed on goods moving between Britain and EU member nations — and on some British goods going to Northern Ireland because it shares a border with EU nation Ireland.

The checks have unsettled the delicate political balance in Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K. and where some people identify as British and some as Irish. The new measures are opposed by pro-British Unionists, who say they drive a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.

Northern Ireland authorities halted veterinary checks and withdrew border staff from ports for several days this month after threatening graffiti appeared referring to port workers as targets.

The sensitivity of Northern Ireland’s status was underscored earlier this month when the EU briefly threatened to ban shipments of coronavirus vaccines to Northern Ireland as part of...