- The prime minister is embarking up a narrow path with steep drops on either side: in the coming days he hopes to strike an agreement with Brussels to fix the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, the most bitterly contested part of Johnson’s 2019 Brexit deal.
- The route is littered with political skeletons; Theresa May, another former Tory leader, lost her job trying to resolve the issue of Northern Ireland’s relationship with the EU post-Brexit, covering complex questions of customs controls and EU law.
- “It gives me cold sweats just thinking about it,” says one veteran Tory, recalling previous negotiations to try to settle the question.
