Boris Johnson tells EU: backstop must be abolished or it’s no deal

Tom Smyth: I love watching his fans say “good job, Boris”, knowing that, come October, they will be baying for blood and saying “never liked him, or trusted him, in the first place”.

Pierce Martin: Tom Smyth, you could be right.

Angela Rolfe: What I don’t get is, if the backstop is only an insurance policy to be used if no other solution is found, and people are convinced there are alternative solutions (whatever they may be), what is the issue with it? Or are there no alternative solutions? The people who talk about alternative solutions, or similar, are just as clueless as everyone else.

Feargal Hague: The backstop is merely a reflection of the Good Friday Agreement and is, therefore, going nowhere.

Warren Jenkins: The backstop, like the Belfast Agreement, isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

Eamon Callan: BoJo needs to be got out of office.

Feargal Hague: Warren Jenkins, I can guarantee you that those who are subject to the Good Friday Agreement stringently honour it. One element of the Good Friday Agreement was to bring about peace. By a ceasefire of all paramilitaries involved in the Troubles and the removal of the British Army, it has largely achieved such.

Brian Courtney: Warren Jenkins, the Brexit referendum isn’t legally binding. In fact, the Good Friday Agreement is worth more legally.

Ashley Shaw: I like Boris more and more each and every day.

Jim Smith-Wright: Ashley Shaw, yeah. And in two months you will hate him and be trying to claim you have always said that.

Pierce Martin: It is more than the backstop. The whole withdrawal agreement must be rejected. A clean Brexit is the only way.

Steven O’Connor: Working-class people supporting a person like Boris Johnson is warped. He despises you and your families, looks down on you and views you as second-class citizens.