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Northern Ireland Protocol: Conor Burns interview; USA: Washington DC: INT Conor Burns (Minister of State for Northern Ireland) interview SOT: Q: "Minister the VP of the European Comission has today said lets call a spade a spade - what you have done is illegal" A: "Well lets call a spade a spade also - this is unneccessary and unhelpful - what the EU need to do is broaden the mandate of the negotiating position that the VP of the Commission has got to find the landing zone - this is what you have to fill in to move goods within the United Kingdom *Holds up stack of papers to cover face* that will never go into the single market. This is not acceptable" Q: "Well you know today that he held up in his press conference a single 3 page certification document. He said its not 300, not 30 but 3" A: "Come to County Antrim, come and meet the haulers who have shown me this *shakes pile of papers again* for a single cotnainer worth of goods there is clearly a miscommunication. I invite him, I invite anyone from another EU member state.." Q: "He's inviting you to the table" A: "And we would come to the table" Q: "The fact is you are here, they want you round the table there and you are here for a reason, to talk to the US who play a very important role in this negotiation - having been at the table for the signing of the Good Friday Agreement which now Ireland and America believe you have put in jeopardy" A: "I'm here on behalf of the PM, as his special representative to the US on protocol. As only the second minister in 50 years, in the NI office, who is from NI. I was born in Belfast, I am Catholic, I'm openly gay - I'm doing this because I passionately believe that fixing the implementation and the interpretation of the protocol is critical to protecting the institutions that were born out of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement" Q: "But what you're doing risks wrecking that, Ireland said this is a new low in Irish British relations in 24 years s...