March 22, 2023 is the day Brexit finally came true and Brexit boy Boris Johnson made his final appearance. It’s been just over three years since he triumphantly entered Downing Street with his ‘Let’s get Brexit done’ slogan. In truth, Johnson never managed to make Brexit a reality. His promised “ready-to-bake deal” was far from done. This is what the past two years of bitter disputes between Brussels, London and Dublin stand for.
Instead, it was the European Union that implemented Johnson’s second infamous slogan: “Take back control.” Johnson’s successor, Rishi Sunak, also had his share of that final chapter. Sunak recognized the normative power of the factual. Brits can no longer take the issue of Brexit – even many pro-British Unionists in Northern Ireland want to put the wretched saga behind them. There is no longer any capital to be made from the exit from the EU.
After almost eight years of cramping, London is finally clear: Brussels will never throw its rules overboard because supposed Tory greats are threateningly brandishing the Empire club. The clear parliamentary approval of the new Northern Ireland framework agreement, which the EU and Sunak agreed at the end of February, proved that this insight has finally leaked out.
A deal that corrects malfunctioning details. But it essentially cemented what Brussels wanted: the sovereignty of the EU Court of Justice in Northern Ireland and the continued protection of the internal market. What’s more, Northern Ireland has to implement laws from Brussels due to its special position as part of the internal market. Which in turn torpedoes the major goal of Brexit fans to separate the island from the continent in regulatory terms.
Inevitably, the vote on the Windsor Framework brought back memories of the mad weeks of early 2019, when Theresa May’s Brexit deal crashed again and again in the House of Commons. Sometimes with 432 dissenting votes from the 634 MPs, sometimes with 308. Four years later it was a measly 29 who stood in the way of the British Prime Minister and his Brexit deal. One of them was Boris Johnson.
The man who wanted so badly to see Brexit done. Because Brexit actually kept Johnson alive politically. But even his last battle plan failed, to use the exit from the EU again for his personal purposes and to weaken the Sunak he hated by internal opposition in the lower house.
It was ironic that Johnson was being questioned by a committee at the same time as the vote was taking place. He is investigating whether the ex-prime minister lied to the House of Commons about the lockdown parties at his official residence. Johnson went into self-defense with verve.
The committee will probably suspend him anyway. Which doesn’t mean the end of Boris Johnson. But for his comeback, which he will certainly try, he has to come up with a new slogan. Brexit is over.
