The Irish government has accused Boris Johnson of trying to sabotage the Northern Ireland peace process with a “unilateral provocative act” based on spurious claims about the Good Friday agreement.

As Brexit talks hang by a thread following the UK’s threat to renege on parts of the withdrawal agreement, Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s European affairs minister, branded the UK government’s claims that its move was to protect the peace process as “completely false”.

He said what would happen as a result of this bill becoming law was “completely unthinkable”.

Relations with the EU have plunged to a new low in the last 24 hours after the UK rejected Brussels demands to withdraw the parts of the internal markets bill that would give the government power to override the Northern Ireland protocol.