It’s easy to see why Lord Frost has been forced into such contortions this week

The prime minister is risking a clash with our biggest trading partner and with some of his own supporters at home, writes Andrew Woodcock

Brexit negotiator has admitted the UK failed to secure the agreement it wanted for Northern Ireland (PA)

One of the most peculiar spectacles in the world of politics this week has been Boris Johnson’s Brexit chief David Frost going around telling anyone who’ll listen how bad the deal he negotiated with Brussels was.

In a series of jaw-on-the-floor interventions, Lord Frost has complained that the Northern Ireland protocol, which the PM agreed at the end of 2019, has been disrupting trade in the province.

Apparently, no one in Downing Street anticipated that erecting a customs border in the Irish Sea would result in customs checks on goods travelling from the British mainland.