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The former chief advisor to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings, said he never intended to comply with the Brexit agreements with the EU on Northern Ireland.
London – The plan was to reach an agreement in the exit talks with Brussels to win the 2019 general election and then “get rid of the parts that we don’t like,” wrote the once second most powerful man in the London seat of government Downing Street on Tuesday evening Twitter. The British Brexit Minister David Frost had previously demanded in a speech from the EU that the Northern Ireland Protocol, which he negotiated himself less than two years ago, should be replaced by a new agreement. “The protocol is not working,” said Frost, threatening to partially override the agreement through an emergency mechanism. However, he stressed that despite doubts, the UK government had initially tried to implement the protocol.
“He has to say that!” Cummings commented on Frost’s assurances that the agreement was signed in good faith. In any case, he had never intended to keep the agreement. Cummings, who left the government in a dispute at the end of last year, could not resist a swipe at his former boss Johnson: Johnson “obviously never understood what the hell was going on”. Cummings is considered to be the brain behind the successful campaign by Brexit supporters in the 2016 EU referendum and the overwhelming victory of Johnson and his Conservatives in the 2019 general election. Last year, however, there was a rift with the prime minister. Since then, the former chief advisor has hardly missed an opportunity to portray the government in a bad light. (dpa)