Boris Johnson yields to reality, but Brexit will come back to haunt Britain

When Boris Johnson unveiled his transitional Brexit agreement with the European Union a year ago, he proclaimed it was a “great new deal” which “takes back control”.

“We hold all the cards!” his minister Michael Gove declared.

Johnson had dislodged his predecessor Theresa May, sledging her pact with Brussels as an “absolute stinker”, but it turned out he’d traded away even more.

His deal was forecast to dent UK growth by 6.7 per cent (May’s would cost only 2.1), and for all the pugnacious talk of defending the UK’s sovereignty, it abandoned Northern Ireland to EU customs rules.

Still, an election victory at his back, Johnson insisted, “we’ve got an oven-ready deal”.

“We’ve just got to put it in at gas mark four, give it 20 minutes and Bob’s…