The only part of Brexit that’s working

We are told the Northern Ireland protocol has failed and must go – but nothing could be further from the truth, writes Rob Merrick

A lorry passes an anti-Brexit pro-Irish unity billboard (AFP/Getty)

Our exporters are having the time of their lives at the moment,” says Stephen Kelly, head of the lobby group Manufacturing NI – about, believe it or not, the Northern Ireland protocol.

How can he say this when, on this side of the Irish Sea, we are bombarded with government claims that the deal Boris Johnson negotiated and signed is a disaster that must be ripped up?

The answer is that opinion is very different in Northern Ireland, where people – or most of them – much prefer the agreement to the huge economic damage inflicted by Brexit on the rest of the UK.