Rishi Sunak ‘making very good progress’ on Brexit deal

Rishi Sunak has made “very good progress” on finding a solution to the Northern Ireland protocol, Downing Street said on Saturday.

Number 10 issued the statement following a meeting between the Prime Minister and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.

They vowed to harness the “spirit of cooperation” the UK has enjoyed with the EU in responding to the war in Ukraine to find a solution to the “full range of issues” they face.

After the meeting, which took place at the Munich Security Conference, Downing Street said: “The president and the Prime Minister expressed their confidence that the spirit of cooperation with which we have responded to Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine should also be reflected across the full range of issues the EU and the UK face together.

“They also had a positive discussion about the talks on the Ireland / Northern Ireland Protocol. They agreed that there had been very good progress to find solutions. Intensive work in the coming days is still needed at official and ministerial levels. The leaders agreed to remain in close contact over the coming days.”

Earlier in the day, Mr Sunak said that “we are by no means done” with his Brexit deal which aims to break the deadlock engulfing the Northern Ireland protocol.

He told the conference: “There isn’t a deal that has been done. There is an understanding of what needs to be done. We are by no means done.”

He said: “When it comes to issue of Northern Ireland Protocol there are real issues that need resolving. The way that the protocol has been implemented Its causing very real challenges for families, people, businesses on the ground. 

“Also an Issue of democratic deficit that sits at heart of protocol as is currently constructed. Those are things we need to resolve. I’m working very hard together with my ministerial colleagues … we are working very closely together, we are engaging in those conversations with the European union, all the time.

“There is still work to do. There are still challenges to work through. We have not resolved all these issues. No, There isn’t a deal that has been done. There is an understanding of what needs to be done, it’s the issues that I outlined.

“We are working through those, we are working through them hard and we will work through them intensely with the EU but we are by no means done.”

It comes after Mr Sunak was warned that his Brexit deal “falls short”, as he rushed to get an agreement over the line to present to Parliament on Tuesday.

Mr Sunak added: “When it comes to the issue of the Northern Ireland protocol there are real issues that need resolving. It’s causing very real challenges.”

He cited the issue of the “democratic deficit that sits at the heart of protocol as currently constructed” as one of the major “things we need to resolve”. 

It follows a trip to Northern Ireland on Friday where he hoped to win the support of political leaders. But Mr Sunak faced a setback as Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, told him that the pact as it stands would not win his party’s support. Sir Jeffrey said the deal as described to him “currently falls short of what would be acceptable”.