LONDON — Boris Johnson quipped a senior UK cabinet minister “Boris is leaving,” as the former prime minister woke up in a Tory debate over the controversial Northern Ireland protocol ahead of a crucial few days for his successor, Rishi Sunak.
Sunak goes into the week hoping he can put Conservative Eurosceptics and Northern Ireland’s unionist politicians closer to an agreement on the post-Brexit trading set-up after months of negotiations between London and Brussels.
Following a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday, Downing Street said “very good progress” was being made, but “intense work” was still needed in the coming days.
But Johnson – who swept to power last year only to be ousted by his own party – dominated the discourse in Sunday’s political broadcast round, taking a dig at Sunak’s tactics over protocol.
The Northern Ireland Protocol area – part of the UK – maintains an alliance with the EU in key areas to avoid a hard border over a politically sensitive border with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member. But the UK government has been arguing since 2020 that the set-up creates an unacceptable barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, while Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is boycotting power-sharing in the region , unless a change is demanded. are met.
Frustrated by the lack of progress in talks with Brussels, Johnson presented Northern Ireland Protocol Bill In the House of Commons last June – a law that, if passed, would allow UK ministers to unilaterally override parts of the system, and which sparked outrage in Brussels.
Since Sunak took office in October, the domestic bill has been put on hold as negotiators try to find a deal. A widely reported quote from a “source close to Johnson” – first reported by the Daily Telegraph – said on Saturday that Johnson believed “abandoning the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill would be a big mistake”.
“Boris is Boris,” House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt told Sky News on Sunday. Referred to is not a random wish list, they are the promises we have made to the people of Northern Ireland. That’s the bar this deal has to clear, and I know the Prime Minister is very focused on that.
Other politicians were less diplomatic. Labor colleague Peter Mandelson told the same show: “There is nothing that Boris is doing now, or indeed in our recent history with the EU, that can possibly be described as helpful.” And he suggested Johnson was trying to “ruin” Sunak’s efforts as part of an ongoing “fratricidal war” in the Conservative Party.
Johnson’s oblique intervention as a host of other prominent Conservative Brexiters put down markers.
David Frost, who was Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator and remains influential on the right of the party, lined up behind johnson On Twitter, warning that “there is no deadline for these talks” Sunak must “keep on talking and in the meantime move forward with the Protocol Bill, so that our negotiators are in the strongest possible position.”
He also called for “greater transparency about what has been achieved so far” in the talks, claiming there were conflicting accounts coming from London and Brussels.
Several Conservative MPs made it clear they would be guided by the DUP’s response to any deal Sunak had with the EU.
writing in the Sunday TelegraphFormer Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: “As long as EU laws and regulations apply to Northern Ireland, leaving the province out of its UK single market and exclusively under UK law, the DUP back Can’t go. [Northern Ireland] Meeting.”