The Brexit drama to come

This week has shown how much the election has changed. The withdrawal agreement has sailed through the Commons and in Northern Ireland, there has been an agreement to get the assembly and the executive back up and running. As I say in The Sun this morning, ministers were struck by how Brexit got only the briefest of mentions at Cabinet this week despite the legislation being before the House. Pre-election, the whole conversation would have been about whether the government had the votes and what it should do if it did not.

Boris Johnson is very keen that this year isn’t dominated by Brexit. Sat Cabinet this week, he again emphasised that ministers should ‘banish Brexit’ from their lexicons after January 31^st. He wants ministers to stop talking about Brexit once the UK has left as he doesn’t want the trade negotiations with the EU to dominate British politics in the way that leaving has since the referendum.