Politics latest news: Don’t try to bounce DUP into Brexit deal, Jacob Rees-Mogg warns Rishi Sunak

Jacob Rees-Mogg has warned Rishi Sunak against trying to “bounce” the DUP into backing his new Brexit deal as the former business secretary suggested such a move would backfire. 

The leading Brexiteer said Mr Sunak should have got the “DUP on board first” before finalising a deal with Brussels to improve the Northern Ireland Protocol because any agreement must be “acceptable” to the unionist party. 

Mr Rees-Mogg also said the DUP’s view on any deal will be “very influential” with the European Research Group of Tory Brexiteer MPs as he fired an apparent warning shot across the bows of No10. 

Speaking to the BBC’s Westminster Hour programme, Mr Rees-Mogg warned Mr Sunak that the DUP will not accept a “fait accompli”. 

He said: “I am slightly concerned that we are in a situation we were in before where the Government says officially there is nothing being agreed and we hear from journalists that they are being briefed that actually an agreement has been broadly come to and I don’t think that is a brilliant way of getting the DUP on board. 

“I think you need to get the DUP on board first and then go and talk to Brussels rather than try and bounce the DUP because the DUP doesn’t respond well to being bounced.”

Mr Sunak is in the process of finalising a deal to fix post-Brexit border arrangements in Northern Ireland but there are concerns among Brexiteers and the DUP that the changes will not go far enough. The PM had hoped to unveil the plans today before presenting them to the Commons tomorrow but it is now thought that timeline has been pushed back. 

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