Boris's team dug itself a hole on Brexit and leapt right into it, says Hague

A BREXIT blunder by Boris Johnson's government led it to "dig a hole and jump into it" over Northern Ireland's trading arrangements, former Tory leader Lord Hague said today.

- Nicholas Cecil

He stressed that this "original error" by the UK Government, to agree to a border down the Irish Sea, and the "rigid position" now being adopted by Brussels meant the crisis would be "very hard" to resolve.

He also warned that the Prime Minister faces a "huge battle" to get the controversial Northern Ireland Bill through Parliament and that he should tell the Democratic Unionist Party that he will only risk it if it agrees to go back into government at Stormont.

The legislation would allow the UK to unilaterally tear up the Northern Ireland Protocol which Mr Johnson signed just over two years ago to ram through the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

The pact avoided a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland but created one down the Irish Sea.