Claim

Johnson said: “There’s been a free travel area between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland for, I think, getting on for 100 years. There’s no reason at all why that should cease to be the case.”

Facts

By October 2019, his view had changed. His Brexit plan involved Northern Ireland leaving the customs union but staying in the single market for goods. It would mean customs checks around the Irish border. Events were to prove that Johnson could not have been more wrong. Nothing the prime minister says about Brexit can be trusted.