
The legal text of the proposed Brexit deal has not been seen. Not by the British parliament and not by any of the 27 EU member governments. If we were dealing with honest politicians that might not matter: but Angela Merkel knows Boris Johnson is neither honest nor competent.
That’s why – if the reports are correct – she told the Prime Minister that if Britain wants to leave the customs union, Northern Ireland has to stay inside it. Otherwise it is impossible to do a deal that guarantees peace in Ireland.