Lucinda Creighton: US pressure won’t make Johnson change tack on the NI protocol

The British prime minister is consumed by his Little England view and winning domestic favour at all costs

Joe Biden’s admonishment of Boris Johnson via his ambassador in London a week before the G7 meeting, and his subsequent in-person appeal to reach agreement on implementing the protocol with the EU and de-escalate the risk posed to the Good Friday Agreement, were unexpected and unequivocal. Picture: Getty

If it were possible to be amazed by anything relating to Brexit at this stage, it would have to be the speed with which the British prime minister has tried to disown the withdrawal agreement, and in particular the Northern Ireland protocol.

It is hard to think of any international agreement that has been so enthusiastically celebrated and cravenly exploited by senior political figures, only to be publicly filleted by those self-same individuals just a ...