Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who admitted on Thursday that it is “very unlikely” that he will play a significant role in politics again, criticized the agreement reached between the current head of government, Rishi Sunak, and Brussels regarding the Northern Ireland protocol. “This is not the UK regaining control,” Johnson said. “This is the European Union [UE] mercifully inflexible to allow us to do what we want to do in our own country, not by our laws but by theirs.”
In a speech at the Global Soft Power Summit in London, the former prime minister admitted “mixed feelings” when reviewing the deal announced Monday by Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, at Windsor. This framework agreement abolishes customs controls for goods moving between England, Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland, while retaining them for goods going to the Republic of Ireland, i.e. entering the European Union.
On the one hand, Johnson said he understood why there was an appeal to “making the compromise” and hoped that Northern Ireland DUP unionists would “find a way to come to terms with this outcome”. On the other hand, he fears that the region will remain too subject to European rules. And he explained that it will be “very difficult” to vote in favor – there is no compulsory vote, but Sunak is under pressure to take the debate to the UK Parliament. “I will have a lot of trouble with it, because I think we should have done something different.”
The former prime minister prefers to break the rules completely without European consent, even at the risk of a trade war, having introduced a bill to that effect during his administration. “I have no doubt that this legislation has led the EU to negotiate seriously,” he said, after Sunak confirmed he would withdraw the proposal.
While speaking, Johnson took “full responsibility” for the original text of the protocol, a source of political tension for causing division between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK – over customs controls – in an attempt to avoid a physical border between the two Irelands. “I thought the checks wouldn’t be tough,” he said.
That described former President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who was in office during the Brexit negotiations Johnson as “a wonderful commission”, someone who “we can’t categorize into a normal category”, but admitted that “I liked him as a person”. Juncker, however, said he had the worst relationship with Johnson of the five British prime ministers he had worked with.
Ursula von der Leyen’s predecessor sees the Windsor agreement, which revises the protocol for Northern Ireland, as “a real breakthrough”, but warned that European institutions will play a bigger role than many in the UK would like. “I think that while the deal responds to major British concerns, there is a part of the European Union in the deal that some in the UK are trying to hide,” he said.
Source: DN
