Brexit rains on Boris Johnson’s G7 parade

Analysis: Northern Ireland row dashes Johnson's hopes of greeting world leaders as PM of a newly emboldened and nimble UK

When Boris Johnson selected Cornwall as the venue for this weekend's G7 summit, he must have imagined greeting the world's leaders against the backdrop of a blazing blue sky on the English riviera, while getting to grips with the great global challenges of climate breakdown and Covid.

Instead, his first face-to-face meeting with Joe Biden on Thursday had to be moved from the picturesque St Michael's Mount to the conference hotel in Carbis Bay, because of the Cornish mizzle - and Brexit was frustratingly high on the agenda.