Will Boris Johnson keep the dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol going until the next general election?

If the prime minister does decide to call an election next May, a promise to ditch the protocol checks could form part of a manifesto pitch, writes Adam Forrest

Could the beleaguered Conservative Party leader really go into the next general election campaign in 2023 or 2024 promising to get ‘Get Brexit (without the protocol) Done’? (PA)

Boris Johnson appears to have decided that there is nothing quite like a good row with the EU. More than two years on from signing his “oven-ready” agreement – the one he “whacked in the microwave” to get Brexit done – the PM has decided it’s worth poking holes in the thing and reheating the row all over again.

The former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain has warned that Johnson is staging a “Putinesque” bust-up to keep his Brexiteer base happily, helpfully irate with the “old villain Brussels”.

The idea that the protocol bill is a convenient distraction for No 10 is not exactly new. But Lord Hain thinks we’ve underestimated the long-term thinking of Johnson, who has been in day-to-day survival mode for many months.