Boris Johnson has said Rishi Sunak’s new Brexit deal does not “take back control” from the EU and will be unlikely to vote for it.
Speaking in Westminster on Thursday afternoon, the former prime minister was highly critical of the so-called Windsor Framework.
“I am going to find it very difficult to vote for something like this myself,” he said in his first public comments since the deal was agreed.
“I believe we should have done something different.”
Sunak has struck a new agreement with the the EU which seeks to remove post-Brexit trade barriers by creating a new system for the flow of goods into Northern Ireland.
Johnson said he had “mixed feelings” about the deal, adding “this is not about the UK taking back control” as Brexit “won’t be” done with it.
“Although there are easements this is really a version of the solution that was being offered last year to Liz Truss when she was foreign secretary,” he said.
“This is the EU graciously unbending to allow us to do what we want to do in our own country, not by our laws but by theirs.
“Who votes for the people who decide these rules... no one in England or Scotland or Wales and no one in Northern Ireland.”
Sunak has said MPs in the Commons will be given a vote on his new deal.
Keir Starmer has pledged Labour support, which means here is little chance of the prime minister losing the vote even if some eurosceptic Tory MPs vote against him.
The DUP, which is currently boycotting the Stormont powersharing institutions in Northern Ireland, has said it will study the deal before giving its verdict.