London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

By flip-flopping on Brexit, Boris Johnson is stoking violence

By flip-flopping on Brexit, Boris Johnson is stoking violence

If you thought this Government had, as it frequently promised, ‘got Brexit done’, think again.

It’s been over two years since the Prime Minister signed the Northern Ireland Protocol as part of the Withdrawal Agreement, which at the time he hailed as ‘fantastic news for families and businesses in every part of the UK’.

And yet now, all of a sudden, his Government’s chief law officer Suella Braverman reportedly considers the implementation of some of the agreements ‘disproportionate and unreasonable’.

As much as ministers may say they wish to renegotiate, they are nonetheless threatening to rip it up. What on Earth happened?

Bombs, gunfire and seemingly ceaseless unrest during the Troubles are still fresh in the memory of many Northern Irish citizens. Peace finally arrived after years of negotiations, but that peace is incredibly fragile.

It takes an enormous amount of hard work from all sides to maintain the balance, and to avoid reopening the wounds of past sectarian violence.

Yet this Brexit deal – and subsequent retraction of it – resembles Boris Johnson driving his infamous forklift truck through peace in Northern Ireland, and then clumsily reversing it with big flashing lights, bashing against everything in its path.



Not only are the Tories threatening peace – they’re actively stoking the violence. One unnamed senior ally of the Prime Minister told the Sunday Times: ‘We want a weapon on the table… We don’t want to use it.’

Careless but highly inflammatory and dangerous threats such as these are unsurprising, when senior Cabinet Ministers such as Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are apparently far more interested in ‘leadership feather-fluttering’ than actually dealing with a whole range of problems that this Government alone has caused – including the prospect of an outright trade war with the EU.

This is just when the Governor of the Bank of England warned of an ‘apocalyptic’ rise in food prices.

The crux of the issue here is that our Government has signed a binding treaty that it now doesn’t wish to uphold. The Prime Minister is either incompetent in that he didn’t understand the agreement he signed, or deceitful in that he never intended to follow it in the first place.

I’d wager that he knew exactly what the agreement amounted to, exactly how much harm it would cause, but went ahead anyway knowing it would win him an election.

Either way, by doing so, our leaders have yet again decided to act with utter disregard for the law. Ministers may claim, via a technicality, that tearing up the Northern Ireland Protocol does not break international law – but we all know that it would make no difference to them anyway.

"The architects of Brexit have created the need for the Protocol – now they need to own it"


From breaking Covid-19 lockdown rules to unlawfully suspending Parliament, this Government has absolutely no shame in law-breaking.

So where do we stand after all of this? There’s a whole swathe of issues that we need to be dealing with right now.

Northern Ireland is facing a health service in drastic need of reform; the UK is facing a cost of living crisis on a huge scale; Europe is facing an era-defining war in Ukraine, and a global climate emergency to boot.

Meanwhile a deluded DUP, which has been convulsed over Brexit and the Protocol, is claiming it performed ‘extremely well’ despite losing a portion of its vote share.

If we are to have any chance of maintaining the fragile peace in Northern Ireland, and get back to tackling the issues that really matter, we need all parties to return to the negotiating table, and get the Assembly up and running again as soon as possible.

The Ulster Unionist Party is prepared to enter the Executive. So why are DUP Assembly members shamelessly taking their salaries while refusing to take their seats – and why is our Government caving in to their demands?

The Protocol isn’t perfect – but it’s there to mitigate against the worst effects of the hardest of Brexits to which this Government signed us up.

The architects of Brexit have created the need for the Protocol – now they need to own it.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×