UK's new Brexit deal with EU 'does not take back control': Ex-British premier

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - The UK's former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that the country's new Northern Ireland Brexit agreement with the European Union was "not about the UK taking back control."

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that the country's new Brexit deal with the European Union was "not about the UK taking back control."

"I hope that it will work, and I also hope that if it doesn’t work, we will have the guts to employ that (Northern Ireland Protocol) Bill again, because I have no doubt at all that that is what brought the EU to negotiate seriously," said Johnson in his speech at the Global Soft Power Summit in London.

The UK and the EU on Monday struck a new deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol, replacing it with what is called the Windsor Framework after persistent disputes over post-Brexit trade arrangements.

In a statement at the House of Commons, current British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the new deal puts beyond all doubt that the UK has "now taken back control."

But Johnson said "this is not about the UK taking back control, and although there are easements, this is really a version of the solution that was being offered last year to Liz Truss when she was foreign secretary.”

"This is the EU graciously unbending to allow us to do what we want to do in our own country, not by our laws, but by theirs," he said, adding: "I believed that we should have done something different no matter how much plaster came off the ceiling in Brussels."

- Windsor Framework and green lane

The new deal reached by Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen effectively replaces the old Northern Ireland Protocol.

The new legal framework includes a “Stormont Brake” that enables the UK to veto new EU goods laws if they are not backed by both communities in Northern Ireland.

According to the British government, a new green lane (the UK internal market scheme) means traders moving goods destined for Northern Ireland will be freed of unnecessary red tape.

- Northern Ireland Protocol and Brexit

Up to now, the Northern Ireland Protocol has necessitated border checks on any animal and plant-based products, including frozen meat and processed meat products, before their transport to Northern Ireland, which is aligned with EU rules and regulations.

The protocol created a de facto trade border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The UK left the bloc on Jan. 31, 2020 as a result of the 2016 Brexit referendum that ended the country’s 40-year-plus membership in the European club.

The agreement signed by the sides included the protocol, which practically avoided a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The protocol has been a major thorn of contention between the sides.