We Swooned When Sunak Signed The New Brexit Deal

| was there when European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen looked lovingly over from her podium and into the eyes of the man she called dear Rishi’ (PA)

- Tom Peck

Here it was then, history, in all its ragged glory. Write it down in your diary, type it up in your Notes app, because the grandkids are going to want to know exactly where you were when Rishi Sunak announced brand new customs processes for the export of phytosanitary goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

“Where were you?” they’ll ask. “Where were you when the text of the Northern Ireland protocol was amended to make provision for separate green lanes and red lanes for low- and high-risk products?”

Well I was in the room where it happened, kids: the Guildhall in Windsor. Before yesterday, its claim to fame was merely that it had hosted the marriages of Charles and Camilla, and Elton John and David Furnish (which, to be clear, were two separate occasions many years apart, not like the Ian Beale/Barry Evans and Janine Butcher EastEnders double header).

I was there when European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen looked lovingly over from her podium and into the eyes of the man she called “dear Rishi”. They were there to announce history together.

We should, of course, give history its proper name. The replacement for the Northern Ireland protocol is now known as the Windsor Framework. It is known as this because they announced it in a room in Windsor that is available for private hire, directly above a museum.