London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Boris Johnson hints he may not support Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland deal

Boris Johnson hints he may not support Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland deal

Ex-PM says controversial bill is best way forward as lawyers advising Tory Eurosceptics submit fresh proposal
Boris Johnson has hinted he may not support a proposed deal over the Northern Ireland protocol from Rishi Sunak, heaping pressure on the prime minister to revive a controversial bill that would unilaterally override parts of the Brexit treaty.

His intervention came on Thursday as it emerged that lawyers advising Eurosceptics in the Conservative party submitted fresh proposals to Sunak to end the rule of EU law in Northern Ireland, one of the major sticking points in the UK-EU negotiations over the protocol.

The proposals were sent to Downing Street, senior ministers and the European Commission as the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, travelled to Brussels for more talks with the commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič.

In an interview with Sky News, Johnson said it was “important that we wait to see what there may be” in Sunak’s deal. But the former prime minister went on to say: “I think the best way forward, as I said when I was running the government, is the Northern Ireland bill, which, you know, cleared the Commons very comfortably, I think unamended, when I was in office only a few months ago. So I think that’s the best way forwards.”

The bill, which would allow the UK to unilaterally rip up some Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland, has been paused amid the EU-UK discussions.

Johnson said: “It’s a very good bill. It fixes all the problems. It solves the problems that we have in the Irish Sea, solves the problems of paperwork, VAT and so on. It’s an excellent bill and doesn’t set up any other problems in the economy of the whole island of Ireland. So I’d go with that one.”

The bill would allow the UK government to ignore parts of the protocol disliked by traders with Northern Ireland, but critics say that this would breach international law and that, if the UK government ever tried to use it, the EU could retaliate by imposing tariffs on imports from Britain.

The proposals to Sunak from Eurosceptics’ legal advisers suggested a system that would mean any businesses exporting to the EU that breached European regulations would be prosecuted in British courts rather than the European court of justice.

To work, the government would pass special legislation creating a new export certification and tariff collection system for exporters to the EU. By signing up to the certification, exporters in Northern Ireland would agree to pay tariffs if applicable and follow all EU laws relevant to their products.

The Democratic Unionist party told the BBC on Wednesday night: “Sir Jeffrey [Donaldson, the DUP leader] did not approve this document but was advised it was being sent.”

It is understood the document, seen by the Guardian, was written by some senior figures in Lawyers for Britain – a group of lawyers and academics who backed the leave campaign and are part of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs’ “star chamber” of legal advisers – along with Jamie Bryson, the Northern Ireland policy director at the Centre for the Union thinktank.

Christopher Howarth, an adviser to the ERG, told BBC Northern Ireland’s Nolan Live: “When we saw this proposal we thought it was incredibly interesting because it raises a way of solving the problem of the Northern Ireland protocol in a way we think could solve the needs of all the major parties to it – the EU and Ireland’s needs, the needs to remove EU law and [create] democratic consent in Northern Ireland – and do it in a way that leaves an invisible border, and non-compliant goods don’t get into the EU’s market.”

Both the DUP and the ERG stressed they were not authors of the document but Howarth told Nolan Live he had discussed it with Donaldson. “I have discussed this with him and I think he would share the view that it is a very interesting proposal that deserves to be discussed because it is a potential solution,” Howarth said.

Under the proposals, British prosecutors could take companies in Great Britain to court if they were sending components to Northern Ireland that failed to comply with EU law but ended up in finished products exported from the region to the single market.

“EU law would not itself directly apply within the territory of Northern Ireland, and would only arise at or beyond entry to the Republic [of Ireland], at which point EU law could be enforced by the EU/Irish government,” says the letter.

The document suggests the EU and Ireland would apply a similar system in reverse with their own export certification to comply with UK law.

Under the system, companies in Great Britain sending products, including components, to Northern Ireland that would end up being exported to the EU, would have to go through “red lane” checks in transit on the ferry or on arrival at the port in Belfast or Larne.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
×