RIshi Sunak unveiling ‘Windsor Deal’ for Northern Ireland Brexit rules
Tories and DUP are ALREADY warning Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal will not be good enough as PM prepares to finalise terms with EU chief von der Leyen that would axe customs checks for Northern Ireland – but keep powers with European judges
- EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is coming to the UK today
- She is set to shake hands with Rishi Sunak on post-Brexit trading arrangements
- The meeting over Northern Ireland trade agreements will take place in Windsor
Rishi Sunak will roll the dice on his premiership today as he risks Tory and DUP fury by sealing a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.
The PM will meet EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in Windsor at lunchtime to finalise the pact, the result of months of painstaking negotiations.
Downing Street insists that Mr Sunak has achieved ‘significant and far reaching’ concessions. One Cabinet minister even swiped at Boris Johnson by claiming the terms are better than ‘any of [Sunak’s] predecessors got’.
However, the DUP is not expected to give its verdict immediately and has set red lines that are unlikely to be met – including completely removing the role of the European Court of Justice. Unless the unionists agree to rejoin powersharing at Stormont the political crisis will continue.
Mr Sunak could face a rough ride from Tories when he makes a statement to the Commons this evening after staging a press conference with Ms von der Leyen. Some MPs are already warning that the agreement will not be satisfactory – although other previous hard-liners insist they are open-minded.
Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker is said to be on ‘resignation watch’ and Boris Johnson is waiting in the wings, as Mr Sunak faces his most perilous moment yet.
RIshi Sunak has thrashed out a ‘Stormont lock’ designed to give Northern Ireland a say – but not a veto – over new EU trade laws that will continue to apply
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will travel to the UK today to shake hands on a new deal over post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker was in Downing Street again today, amid rumours that whips have put him on ‘resignation watch’
Brussels is thought to have agreed to ditch checks and paperwork on almost all goods and produce sent from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland. Red and green customs channels will be used to distinguish what is bound for the province and the Republic, which remained inside the EU
Mr Sunak is believed to have secured a package that removes single market rules from 90 per cent of products made in Northern Ireland, as long as they are not bound for the EU.
Although Northern Ireland might still be covered by future EU legislation, there will be a democratic mechanism intended to ensure the province’s politicians have a say and consultation with London.
In one of the potential flashpoints, the European Court of Justice will stay as the final arbiter on single market rules in Northern Ireland. But there will be protections designed to demonstrate that cases cannot be referred directly by the EU.
In what could be a crucial win, Mr Sunak appears to have persuaded the bloc that the text of the protocol should be tweaked – something it had previously refused to do.
Tory Eurosceptics were largely keeping their powder dry this morning, with Jacob Rees-Mogg saying the the ‘devil will be in the detail’.
In a round of interviews he stopped short of ruling out backing the plan, but suggested Mr Sunak will fail to win over the DUP.
The ex-Cabinet minister told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘There are two things we need to know: one is what the DUP thinks, because the protocol itself sets out in its first article that it is subsidiary to the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement.
‘So, if the DUP doesn’t think that it meets test, that will be very influential among Conservative MPs.
‘I’m afraid with all the EU deals the devil is in the detail, so when people say ‘we need to see the legal text’, they are not larking about, they really want to see it to understand what the effect is.’
The location of the meeting in Windsor has raised the prospect that Ms von der Leyen could also hold talks with King Charles during her visit.
However, unionists and some Tory MPs have raised alarm that would risk dragging the monarch into the contentious politics of Brexit.
Mr Rees-Mogg told GB News: ‘I think the sovereign should only be involved when things have been completed and accepted.
‘The King gives assent to Acts of Parliament when Parliament has agreed, he doesn’t express his view on Acts of Parliament when they are going through the process.
‘I think the same applies, that His Majesty should not be involved until there is full support for this agreement.’
Downing Street has stressed that there are still substantive issues for the PM and Ms von der Leyen to address this afternoon, although they are thought to have tied up the main elements in talks by phone yesterday.
Mr Sunak has said the deal ‘will show that Brexit truly works and will finish the job’, adding: ‘This deal will work better for business and communities and get goods moving.
‘It will resolve the issues so we can all move forward. This will give Northern Ireland control of their own destiny. This is something very positive.’
The package is expected to include a ‘Stormont lock’ designed to give Northern Ireland a say – but not a veto – over new EU trade laws that will continue to apply in the province.
The PM held private talks in No 10 with Mr Baker yesterday in a sign of concern about resignations, while a survey by the grass-roots Conservative Home website found Tory activists oppose the idea of Mr Sunak’s plan by 41 per cent to 36.
Former Brexit minister Lord Frost has urged the PM to revive the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, saying it was vital to be ‘really tough’ with Brussels.
The European Research Group (ERG) of Tory MPs has said it will establish a ‘star chamber’ of lawyers to examine whether the new deal meets their sovereignty tests.
Meanwhile, DUP MP Sammy Wilson said it was a ‘red line’ for his party that ‘there should be no EU law applying to this part of the UK’.
Cabinet ministers, who will be formally briefed on the plans this afternoon, were last night ringing round Conservative MPs to shore up support.
Ms von der Leyen will also hold talks with King Charles – raising fears that the monarch is being dragged into politics
Northern ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris in Downing Street today
What is the Brexit row about and what has been the impact on Northern Ireland?
The UK and the EU have been engaged in intense negotiations over the workings of the Northern Ireland Protocol of the original withdrawal agreement that allowed the UK to leave the EU.
It was designed to ensure the free movement of goods across the Irish land border with Ulster after Brexit.
Rather than being an internal EU line between two countries, with Brexit it became a border between the bloc and a third party country with different customs and trade rules.
In any other cases it would be solved simply by creating a ‘hard’ border – physical checks on vehicles and people travelling between the two.
But the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence in 1998, expressly prohibits a return to such checkpoints on the island of Ireland.
To get around this the protocol instead created economic barriers on trade being shipped from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
It has proven to be deeply unpopular with unionists, who claim it has weakened Northern Ireland’s place within the UK.
Last year the DUP collapsed the powersharing institutions at Stormont in protest at the arrangements. It came as the party was replaced as the largest in the powersharing government by Sinn Fein for the first time.
And the DUP is refusing to back a deal and restart powersharing unless their concerns are realised. They have set seven tests that it must pass to be approved.
Mr Sunak is expected to unveil the details in a statement to Parliament this afternoon.
However, there has been concern that MPs have not yet been guaranteed a vote on the deal.
Some are concerned that they have been left in the dark during talks.
One MP claimed Downing Street had kept them out of the loop to ‘set everything up’ and present the deal as ‘a fait accompli’.
Downing Street has not fully committed to giving Parliament a vote on the agreement, as demanded by the European Research Group (ERG), made up of Eurosceptic Tory MPs.
No10 has been warned that rebels will force an indicative vote whether they want one or not.
The PM will tell MPs that his deal will secure Northern Ireland’s place in the Union and protect the future of the Good Friday Agreement.
It is expected to lead to the scrapping of a barrage of EU checks on goods sent to the province from the rest of the UK, which have caused major problems for businesses and families, and led to unionist fears that Northern Ireland could be forced out of the UK.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said Mr Sunak was ‘on the cusp’ of a deal that would result in the ‘substantial scaling back’ of the role of the European Court of Justice in Northern Ireland.
Mr Raab said the deal would mark a ‘paradigm shift’ in relations and ‘would be very good news for the communities of Northern Ireland and I think for the Good Friday Agreement as well’.
Ministers are optimistic that they can win over most Eurosceptic Tory MPs with a deal which Mr Raab said would ‘properly and fully get Brexit done’ and open the door to warmer relations with the EU.
But senior figures in the DUP warned that they were not yet convinced the deal would deliver enough to persuade them to re-enter power-sharing in Northern Ireland, a key objective of the PM.
And some Tory Eurosceptics said they would struggle to support a deal that was not supported by the DUP and which left the EU with a toehold in the UK.
In an ominous intervention last week, Boris Johnson told the PM that the ‘best way forward’ would be to take unilateral legal powers to scrap the EU’s trade checks in Northern Ireland.
Mr Sunak yesterday said he was ‘giving it everything we’ve got’ to get a deal.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, the PM said his new agreement was not a threat to Brexit but about ‘making sure Brexit works in every part of the UK’.
Last night, neither No 10 nor Buckingham Palace would comment on whether the King would meet Mrs von der Leyen today.
Details of a planned meeting on Saturday, which was cancelled for ‘operational reasons’, raised concerns that No 10 was hoping to give the deal the impression of royal approval to head off opposition.
In an ominous intervention last week, Boris Johnson told the PM that the ‘best way forward’ would be to take unilateral legal powers to scrap the EU’s trade checks in Northern Ireland
The Mail on Sunday revealed yesterday that the King’s first overseas trip will be to Berlin and Paris, in a break from the tradition of using the inaugural visit to travel to a Commonwealth country.
Jacob Rees-Mogg said it would be ‘wrong if Downing Street has applied pressure on the King’ over a highly political issue. And Mr Wilson warned No 10 against a ‘cynical use’ of the King’s position.
ERG chairman Mark Francois said the concessions did not appear to go far enough, and he would accept a deal only if ‘EU law is expunged from Northern Ireland’. ‘Less of a role is not enough.
‘Just putting a couple of intermediate phases in but in a situation where you still end up with the European Court of Justice is effectively sophistry. We’re not stupid.’
DUP MP Ian Paisley said: ‘If the PM’s plan involves keeping any part of the protocol, the DUP will not be going back into power-sharing.