UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had "naive views" of
Northern Ireland when he was a journalist, according to a description by an Irish Embassy official revealed in declassified papers cited by
The Independent.Johnson and Irish diplomat Colin Wrafter went to lunch together on 24 April 1995, the details of which were disclosed in the now released Department of Foreign Affairs files.
Wrafter described Johnson as being a "Eurosceptic" and "Thatcherite" in a diplomatic memo that was forwarded to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin on 27 April of that year. The venue of their meeting remains unknown.
According to Wrafter, Johnson "was reflecting a view widely held by political journalists in Westminster" when the then-journalist noted that "the prime minister is determined to proceed with the peace process at a pace just a little on the right side of 'stalling'".
The Irish diplomat summed up Johnson's journalistic portfolio, noting that he was "previously Brussels correspondent for The Daily Telegraph and was recalled to London to succeed Simon Heffer at The Spectator when the latter was made deputy editor at The Daily Telegraph".
Later n 1999, Johnson would become editor of The Spectator, then proceeding to become a Conservative MP in the early 2000s.
Now as the United Kingdom is still dealing with the aftermath of Brexit and struggling to negotiate new rules for trade with the European Union, Northern Ireland has drawn specific attention since it does not have a hard border with the Republic of Ireland. Under the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP), however, all goods coming from the rest of the UK must undergo checks upon arrival to see if they comply with EU sanitary regulations.
London has argued that the protocol is not working due to the delays it causes to goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the country. In December, the UK's chief negotiator on post-Brexit relations with the EU, David Frost, resigned from the position and said that "Brexit is now secure". He is set to be replaced by Liz Truss, with London expressing the desire to renegotiate the entire protocol.