Thread by @jillongovt

we have got a new @UKandEU set of #Brexitwitnessarchive interviews out this week - and on Wednesday our very own @hayward_katy is on a panel @instituteforgov talking about the Johnson NI protocol. so let's see how we got there... THREAD!!!!

all the Cabinet members we talked about agreed on the importance for May of not destablising Northern ireland - and her gradual realisation of the threat Brexit posed - this from @DLidington

and as he reminds us there was a pretty unbalanced view from Parliament in 2017-19 with the wipe-out of the SDLP and Sinn Fein abstentionism

But should the govt have done a confidence and supply deal with the DUP - Chief of Staff @GavinBarwell felt they had little alternative

but recognised that move had potential ramifications for the Good Friday Agreement

and it wasn't just the UK govt who had to manage a tricky confidence and supply arrangement - and the UK side were taken aback by what the EU proposed...

The May government devoted a lot of time and effort to trying to get the DUP to back their version of the protocol as finally negotiated - and thought some were sympathetic @DLidington

The DUP were offered a lot of concessions. Former Chief Whip @JulianSmithUK

and those assurances failed to get the DUP over the line. Her ministers think Theresa May was deterred by the implications for NI of going for No Deal.

Not so Boris Johnson took a different approach - @DavidGauke

that was not where @DLidington thought Johnson would go

By then @JulianSmithUK was Northern Ireland Secretary. His priority was to avoid no deal - and he wasn't too surprised a deal was done

By that time any deal would do - in the Conservative party at least

Smith hoped they could minimise the processing associated with the protocol - and Northern Ireland would see the opportunities as well. When we interviewed him in autumn last year, he thought that the temperature was going down on the protocol.

So watch @instituteforgov at lunchtime with @Jess_Sargeant in the chair with Katy, @MichaelAodhan Simon Hoare from @CommonsNIAC and @nealerichmond to see whether the NI Protocol can be made to work instituteforgovernment.org.uk/events/ni-prot…