Boris Johnson will not oppose Rishi Sunak’s new Brexit deal

March 1 () –

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not oppose the new Brexit deal reached this week by current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, despite doubts about his position on the matter.

The newspaper ‘The Times’, citing sources close to the former ‘premier’, has confirmed that, although Johnson had previously criticized the plans before Sunak announced the agreement on the Northern Ireland Protocol, he will not fully oppose him. .

The reason could lie in the lukewarm response to the plan from the country’s other eurosceptic conservatives, despite strong opposition expected.

“Boris will accept the agreement because there is no rebellion”, the sources of the aforementioned newspaper have assured, “he does not want to be the outsider”. “If he ends up voting alone with 12 or 15 other people he will look stupid, and he knows which way the wind is blowing,” they added.

Sunak confirmed on Tuesday talks with Johnson about the agreement, since the former manager could be one of his biggest critics. Under his command, London took steps to unilaterally challenge the Protocol.

The British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced this Monday a “historic” agreement with which to turn the page on two years of tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol agreed as part of the Brexit divorce but that London refused to apply due to the complexity and costs involved in its compliance in the Northern Irish province.

The result, according to community sources, represents a “balance” between the flexibility required by the British and the necessary safeguards to “preserve” the European Single Market, since the modifications affect issues as disparate as data exchange and customs control. , as well as phytosanitary regulations, trade in medicines, transit of pets, VAT and special taxes or public aid.

The fit for Northern Ireland in relations with the European Union not only means the end of this dispute but also paves the way for talks on another of the issues that remain open between London and Brussels since Brexit: the status of Gibraltar with respect to the community block.

It also means recovering the trust damaged in recent years and thinking about the new framework for future relations, as well as improving cooperation in the international geopolitical context. “I hope to jointly strengthen our cooperation in Foreign Policy and Security”, the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell, has written on social networks.

The pact reached between Sunak and Von der Leyen still needs to pass the judgment of both the British Parliament and the community bloc, although on the European side only three laws must comply with the co-legislative procedure while the rest, the bulk of the changes, depend only on support of Council.