Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal: eight key changes

The UK Government and the European Commission today published the text of a revised Protocol on Northern Ireland, coming just in time for the start of today’s European Council Summit. The Government also released a unilateral declaration concerning the operation of the ‘consent mechanism’ contained in the new Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The new deal is different in both concept and substance to Theresa May’s deal – and to the EU’s original proposal for a Northern Ireland-only backstop. In fact, in many ways the new arrangements for Northern Ireland are more of a “front-stop” than a “backstop” – rather than an insurance policy which both sides want to avoid, they would come into effect immediately after the transition period.

I have produced a “track change” piece, available here, which compares the new Protocol line-by-line to the backstop negotiated by Theresa May. Below is a summary of the key changes.

Objectives and relation to future relationship: major change

May’s Protocol emphasised from the start that the arrangement was temporary, but would last “unless and until” it was superseded by a subsequent agreement.