Why is Boris Johnson denying his deal includes customs checks?

The prime minister is saying one thing while his deal says another. What’s he up to, asks Jon Stone

Pants on fire: not telling the truth is something that has caught up with the prime minister many times before (AFP/Getty)

Downing Street again insisted on Friday that the Brexit deal struck by Boris Johnson doesn’t introduce customs checks between different parts of the UK. “There will be no checks,” his spokesperson told reporters yesterday morning.

But that isn’t what the deal says, and the EU again hammered that home, drawing a map for the prime minister of where the checks will go, and spelling out how they would work. So why is Mr Johnson still insisting that there won’t be any?

Is it possible that the prime minister doesn’t understand his own deal? This seems unlikely: other ministers have admitted there will be checks. We know, because of leaks, that the government internally says there will be. Johnson will have been told many times by officials.