Lord Frost ended up with egg on his face after claiming the UK’s economic transition outside of the European Union has gone “smoothly”.
The former negotiator gave a keynote speech at the Policy Exchange, revealing that Britain could have been forced to hold a second referendum or accept no Brexit at all if they didn’t accept the Northern Ireland protocol.
He said that it is an “inescapable logical conclusion” that the protocol can’t be operated as it stands and has to be renegotiated or removed.
Lord Frost also warned the agreement had left the Good Friday Agreement “on life support”.
But he was generally more upbeat about Britain’s economic position following the split with the EU.
He said: “Generally it is remarkable how smoothly the total reordering of this country’s economic relations has gone.”
As George Parker pointed out, this graph tells a very different story:
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