Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he agreed to the NI Protocol to win the 2019 general election and end what he referred to as “three years of surrenderism”.
He also admitted he was warned of the consequences of the protocol prior to the UK leaving the European Union by the Attorney-General Sir Geoffrey Cox.
He also claimed the European Commission, by enforcing the protocol has “made a mockery of the peace process”.
The Daily Mail columnist also said the consent mechanism “does not fairly reflect the principles of the Good Friday Agreement”.
The revelation is contained in his autobiography Unleashed.
The UUP’s Steve Aiken said the DUP were “taken for dupes,” by the former prime minister.
Loyalist blogger Jamie Bryson, who has campaigned against the NI Protocol said “unionists who are operating the executive are endorsing this injustice”.
Boris Johnson in his new book confirms that the vote on the continuation of the Union-subjugating Protocol “does not reflect the Good Friday Agreement’s principles”.
— Jamie Bryson (@JamieBrysonCPNI) October 11, 2024
Unionism who are operating the Executive are endorsing this injustice. pic.twitter.com/qRzamZXn6Y
In December 2019, Sir Geoffrey informed the PM that “under these [NI Protocol] arrangements, Northern Ireland will be part of the UK customs union but part of the EU Customs territory”.
Despite this warning, Mr Johnson then flew to Brussels to sign the deal.
He vowed that no new regulatory and customs checks in the Irish Sea would take place on his watch when he spoke at the DUP conference in October 2018.
“I have to tell you no British Conservative government could or should sign up to any such arrangement,” – he told the audience to rapturous applause.
In December 2019, after a leaked Treasury document on the protocol warned that “customs declarations and documentary and physical checks... will be highly disruptive to the NI economy”, Mr Johnson told Sky News that “there will be no checks on goods going from GB to NI, or NI to GB”.
The NI Protocol, which replaced the ‘backstop’ proposal, set out the relationships between NI, the UK and EU post-Brexit.
It was designed to avoid the need for a ‘hard border’ on the island of Ireland with the north remaining in the EU customs union and subject to EU rules around free movement of goods.
It effectively created a customs border between the UK and Northern Ireland.
The DUP endorsed the proposal back in 2019, with then leader Baroness Foster stating, “We believe this is a serious and sensible way forward to have engagement with the European Union in a way that allows us all in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, therefore we will be supporting this plan”.
However, Lord Empey of the UUP responded to this by saying: “The prime minister and the DUP are fooling no-one with these proposals. This new protocol should be deeply concerning for all those who have the long term economic and constitutional welfare of Northern Ireland and its people at heart.”
Reacting to the revelations contained in the book, the UUP’s Steve Aiken MLA said: “As we have always said, the DUP support of Boris Johnson was naive to say the least.
“His remarks show how the DUP were taken for ‘dupes’ by the then-prime minister.
“Curiously, it’s clear that Boris knew he was throwing Baroness Foster under the bus.
“The UUP recognised this, the critical question is why didn’t the DUP?”
In his book, Mr Johnson says he agreed to the protocol to win an election.
“I signed because I calculated that if I could get a deal, I had a good chance of forcing and winning a general election…we would ultimately be able to use UK legislation to fix the problem.”
He also claimed the protocol, which he described as “better than the previous sellout [the backstop] was agreed with a metaphorical “gun to our heads”.
“We desperately needed to do a deal to get out,” he added.
He also added that the subsequent checks on goods were “unnecessary,” claiming that the protocol gave the EU too much power and that the commission ‘blocked’ trade between Britain and NI.
“It was about power,” he said before further describing the protocol as a “hammer designed to keep us aligned and in our place.”
The protocol, which came into effect in January 2021, albeit with grace periods, caused political upheaval in Northern Ireland.
The DUP withdrew from the NI Executive in February 2022 over the NI Protocol.
The Windsor Framework and Safeguarding the Union paper subsequently tweaked the Protocol, notably with the imposition of green and red lanes, separating goods for sale in NI from goods travelling on to the EU, with the former subject to less checks.
Stormont returned in February of this year amidst acute Unionist divisions over the Protocol.
The former PM also said he found the wording of the Downing Street Declaration, in which the British Government said it has ‘no selfish interests’ in Northern Ireland as “deeply disturbing,” although he “rejoiced” at the Good Friday agreement, calling it “an act of great statesmanship.”