IN the latest instalment of the logic-defying Brexit chronicles, unelected Tory minister Lord Frost is threatening to rip up the deal he negotiated with the EU.
The Brexit minister is to set out the UK's demands for changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol amid a stand-off with Brussels over the role of the European Court of Justice.
In a speech to the diplomatic community in Lisbon, Frost will warn the protocol cannot survive without fundamental reform to governance arrangements.
But even before he delivered his address, he was accused by the Irish Government of creating a "red line" barrier to progress in resolving the dispute over post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said the peer was setting demands he knew the EU could not move on and questioned whether the UK really wanted to agree a way forward.
READ MORE: Lord Frost tells Tory conference that Brexit makes Scottish independence harder
But Frost wasn’t always such a hardline Brexiteer.
Somewhat embarrassing quotes have re-emerged on social media which remind us of just that point.
Frost, not yet a lord, was serving as head of the Scotch Whisky Association in 2016 when he made some comments about Brexit we bet he wants everyone to forget.
Speaking to euronews, he said: “About 40% of what we export goes to Europe. If we leave the European Union then we are going to see administrative barriers brought up. If there is a Brexit we will lose access to the European Union Free Trade Agreements, that is clear.
“If the UK then will need to renegotiate its own agreements, clearly that is going to take time. Our interest is to be part of the biggest possible market with the fewest possible barriers.
And here comes the punchline: “The European single market gives us that. The European free trade agreements gives us that. Why would we want to depart from that?”
Good question, David.
Maybe you should have thought of that when you negotiated this catastrophic Brexit deal.
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