On border checks the evidence from his own government mounts but Boris keeps brazening out the denial

It’s more than depressing when the prime minister keeps brazening out denials about checks between GB and NI. He actually contradicts himself between “ no checks” and  “the only checks” within a couple of sentences below.

When asked on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday whether there would be checks, in light of the leaked Treasury document, Johnson replied: “No, absolutely not… The deal we’ve done with the EU is a brilliant deal and it allows us to do all the things that Brexit was about, so it’s about taking back control of our borders, money, laws. But unlike the previous arrangements, it allows the whole of the UK to come out of the EU, including Northern Ireland, and the only checks that there would be would be if something was coming from GB via Northern Ireland and was going on to the Republic, then there might be checks at the border into Northern Ireland.”

Asked if the government’s document was therefore wrong and if his Brexit secretary – who in October said goods going from Northern Ireland to Great Britain would be subject to exit declarations – was also wrong, Mr Johnson replied: “Yes.”Because there’s no question of there being checks on goods going from NI to GB or GB to NI, because they are part of – if you look at what the deal is, we’re part of the same customs territory and it’s very clear that there should be unfettered access between Northern Ireland and the rest of GB… The only reason – this is another of these things that has been produced by the Labour Party as a kind of distraction.”

Nigel Dodds  says a free trade deal “would go a long way” to gaining DUP support. If so as the document below suggests, he’s easily pleased and may even be setting up the DUP for another fall .

Now the FT has got hold of a Brexit department document  endorsing the analysis of the earlier Treasury document  which was the evidence for the latest dispute. It says the so-called front stop would be hard to implement by the self imposed deadline at the end of next year.

The Dexeu document, circulated last week to senior officials in Whitehall, said: “Delivery of the required infrastructure, associated systems, and staffing to implement the requirements of the protocol by December 2020 represents a major strategic, political and operational challenge.” It adds that “delivery on the ground would need to commence before we know the outcome of negotiations”, a reference to the wider free-trade agreement that Mr Johnson insists he can agree with the EU in the course of 2020. The document, marked “Official Sensitive” and titled “Delivering the Protocol by December 2020”, concludes by discussing the possibility that the government would not be ready to put in place new systems and procedures to cover trade with Northern Ireland by the end of next year…”

Brian Walker

Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London