{"id":682084,"date":"2026-01-08T11:26:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682084\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:26:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:26:43","slug":"extraordinary-files-show-boris-johnsons-chief-brexit-negotiator-must-have-known-it-wouldnt-be-easy-for-northern-ireland-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/682084\/","title":{"rendered":"Extraordinary files show Boris Johnson\u2019s chief Brexit negotiator must have known it wouldn\u2019t be easy for Northern Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-91174671_secondary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom4 beltel-1d70522a_marginleft0 beltel-1d70522a_marginright0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">Declassified files from 2004 show another side to the diplomat tipped to join Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Boris Johnson's 'point man' David Frost was an unconventional figure who embraced unpopularity at home and abroad\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4f962acb-d7eb-43da-a7b0-9760fb11526b.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_caption1 beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_secondary beltel-66f0fec7_regular beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_marginleft0 beltel-1d70522a_marginright0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop3 beltel-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Boris Johnson&#8217;s &#8216;point man&#8217; David Frost was an unconventional figure who embraced unpopularity at home and abroad<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">At the height of post-Brexit hostilities between London and Dublin, Boris Johnson\u2019s confrontational \u201cpoint man\u201d was David Frost.<\/p>\n<p class=\"beltel-ebe0ecc6_root beltel-ebe0ecc6_paragraph beltel-300db776_none beltel-91174671_primary beltel-1d70522a_marginbottom0 beltel-1d70522a_margintop0 beltel-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The UK\u2019s chief negotiator was an unconventional figure who embraced unpopularity at home and abroad, revelled in brinkmanship and was willing to use chaos theory to \u2014 he hoped \u2014 give Britain an advantage by adopting hitherto unthinkable stances such as threatening to break international law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Declassified files from 2004 show another side to the diplomat tipped to join Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK Boris&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,204774,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,6410,204775,16,15,23146],"class_list":{"0":"post-682084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-declassified-files","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-sam-mcbride","17":"tag-the-kew-files","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-windsor-framework"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115859238645814222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=682084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/682084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=682084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=682084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=682084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}