LONDON — Boris Johnson “is Boris”, a senior British Cabinet minister has joked, after the former prime minister waded into the Tory debate over the controversial Northern Ireland protocol ahead of a crucial few days for his successor Rishi Sunak .
Sunak heads into the week hoping he can keep Tory eurosceptics and Unionist politicians out of Northern Ireland as the UK nears a deal on setting up post-Brexit swaps after months of talks between London and Brussels.
After a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday, Downing Street said “very good progress” was being made, but insisted “intensive work” was still needed “in the next days”.
But Johnson – who came to power on a promise to ‘Get Brexit Done’ before being ousted by his own party last year – dominated the discourse on Sunday’s political broadcast with a dig into Sunak’s strategy on the protocol.
The Northern Ireland Protocol keeps the region – part of the UK – aligned with the EU in key areas to avoid a hard border on the politically sensitive border with the Republic of Ireland, a member of the EU. But the UK government has argued since 2020 that the setup creates unacceptable barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, while the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland boycotts power-sharing in the region until its change requests are fulfilled.
Frustrated by the lack of progress in talks with Brussels, Johnson introduced the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to the House of Commons last June – legislation which, if passed, would allow British ministers to unilaterally cancel parts of the arrangement, and which sparked outrage in Brussels.
Since Sunak took office in October, the national bill has been on hold as negotiators try to hammer out a deal. Widely reported quotes from a “source close to” Johnson – first carried by the Daily Telegraph – said on Saturday that Johnson believed it would be a “big mistake to drop the Ireland Protocol Bill from North”.
“Boris is Boris,” Penny Mordaunt, Sunak’s leader in the House of Commons, told Sky News on Sunday. But, she said, her decision was not a “totally unnecessary intervention”. referred to are not a random wish list, they are promises we have made to the people of Northern Ireland. That’s the bar this deal has to cross, and I know the Prime Minister is completely focused on that.
Other politicians were less diplomatic. Labor peer Peter Mandelson told the same show: ‘There is nothing Boris is doing now, or indeed throughout our recent history with the European Union, that can be described as helpful. And he suggested that Johnson was trying to “destroy” Sunak’s attempted deal as part of the ongoing “fratricidal war” within the Conservative Party.
Johnson’s veiled intervention came as a host of other prominent Tory Brexiteers laid down markers.
David Frost, who was Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator and remains influential on the party right, seemed to be rowing behind Johnson on Twitter, warning that in the absence of “a deadline for these talks”, Sunak should “continue to negotiate and in the meantime move the protocol bill forward, so that our negotiators are in the strongest possible position “.
He also called for “more transparency on what has been achieved so far” in the talks, saying there are conflicting accounts coming out of London and Brussels.
A number of Tory MPs have made clear they will be guided by the DUP’s response to any deal Sunak makes with the European Union.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘As long as EU laws and regulations apply to Northern Ireland, leaving the province outside the UK’s single market United and subject exclusively to British law, the DUP cannot go back. THE [Northern Ireland] Assembly.”
Politico
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