| UPDATED: 11:22, Tue, Jan 12, 2021
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Kuenssberg: Northern Ireland deal ‘makes it easier to walk away’
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Brexit negotiations regularly faltered over the issue of the Irish border until Prime Minister Boris Johnson and then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar settled on the Northern Ireland Protocol. This meant the region would leave the EU along with the rest of the UK, but continue to follow the rules of the bloc’s single market and customs union. Such an arrangement meant seamless trade could continue with the Republic of Ireland, avoiding the revival of a hard border.