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The DUP’s Paul Givan is understood to have written a letter standing down from the top job in the Northern Ireland Executive.

The decision will effectively collapse the power-sharing government between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Mr Givan wrote his letter after the party’s agriculture minister, Edwin Poots, last night ordered a stop to all customs checks on goods travelling to the province from Great Britain.

The DUP has warned for months that it was willing to bring down the Northern Ireland Executive if the UK Government failed to trigger Article 16, the legal means to suspend aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Unionists argue the Protocol, introduced as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, had undermined the UK’s internal market by creating frictions to trade.

“I have now issued a formal instruction to my permanent secretary to halt all checks that were not in place on December 31 2020 from midnight tonight,” Mr Poots said last night.

DUP rivals at Stormont insist Mr Poots’ direction is unlawful and civil servants are obliged to follow the law at all times.

More to follow…

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