From the pandemic to the protocol: Boris Johnson key moments in Northern Ireland

From the pandemic to the protocol, Boris Johnson has been at the centre of controversy in politics in Northern Ireland.

He visited Ballymena firm Wrightbus in 2016 as the then London Mayor to announce a multimillion pound deal.

His profile then skyrocketed during the Brexit referendum as part of the vote leave campaign.

Leave won the referendum and with his eyes on the Conservative leadership, Boris Johnson made waves within the ranks of the DUP attending their party conference in 2018.

A year later after he became Prime Minister, Johnson again talked to the DUP as the party held the balance of power in Westminister. Days after these meetings, Johnson struck the deal with then-Taoiseach Leo Vardakar that would lead to the Protocol.

Professor Deirdre Heenan from Ulster University says he let the DUP down:

"I think it's fair to say that unionists were treated particularly badly by this Prime Minister.

"He was described as the leader of the Conservative and Unionist party but he is not a Unionist, he's an English Nationalist."

After the publication of the Brexit deal the Prime Minister told Northern Ireland businesses they could put customs forms in the bin, insisting there would be no barriers to trade across the Irish sea.

The following month Boris Johnson went to the country vowing to get Brexit done and returned with a large majority.

By March 2020 the world was rapidly changing, the Prime Minister leading the country during a global pandemic.

With vaccines rolling out Boris Johnson saw for himself the work being undertaken in Northern Ireland as we began to emerge from Covid.

But all the while, the fallout from Brexit rumbled on, signs as far back as 2020 that the Johnson government might attempt to backtrack on what was agreed.

This against a backdrop of deteriorating relations between the UK and EU.

Opposition to the protocol has crashed power-sharing, resulting in moves by Boris Johnson to override the arrangements through legislation.

Despite the inevitable fallout from that, parties here are united in opposition to the government's proposal to offer conditional immunity from prosecution to these guilty of Troubles-related crimes.

Despite the Prime Minister's recent woes that contentious troubles bill passed its third reading in the Commons this week, with the protocol legislation back before the house next week.

He may only remain Prime Minister for a number of weeks but the question is what power if any can Boris Johnson still wield?

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