Ministers ‘threaten to QUIT if Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal risks Northern Ireland’s place in the UK’

Ministers are prepared to resign over Rishi Sunak‘s plans for a new Brexit deal if it jeopardises Northern Ireland‘s place within the UK, it was reported last night.

One minister was quoted as saying that they and others were willing to quit if the PM tried to ram through a deal which left Ulster beholden to existing and future EU single market rules.

The minister told The Times: ‘The naivety is astonishing. The strategy hasn’t worked. People won’t allow something that doesn’t ensure sovereignty.

‘Ministers will resign. I couldn’t look myself in the eye and vote through something I thought would undermine sovereignty in Northern Ireland.’

The Prime Minister is said to be planning to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol in favour of a new deal.  

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is said to be planning to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill in favour or a new Brexit deal with the EU

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, a prominent Eurosceptic, insists the current Northern Ireland Protocol Bill is among the ‘biggest tools’ ministers have when negotiating with the EU

Former PM Boris Johnson has warned against axing the bill in favour of a new Brexit deal, saying any such move would be ‘a big mistake’.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, a prominent Eurosceptic, insists the bill is among the ‘biggest tools’ ministers have when negotiating with the EU. 

She told the BBC: ‘We’ve been aware for some time now of challenges relating to trade, customs and sovereignty when it comes to Northern Ireland and the NI protocol.

‘The legislation that the government introduced is one of the biggest tools we have in solving the problem on the Irish Sea. It’s clear and it’s right that the PM is committed to finding a pragmatic solution to resolve these issues which are affecting the people of Northern Ireland, and that we find a solution that’s pragmatic and workable both for the EU and the UK.’

Mr Sunak will hold a Cabinet meeting today amid growing anticipation that the UK and the EU could be on the verge of agreeing a deal on Northern Ireland Protocol.

But the Prime Minister is facing up to a potential battle with members of his own party as he seeks to satisfy the demands of both Conservative MPs and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) over any agreement.

The European Research Group (ERG), a band of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, are expected to meet for talks later on Tuesday even as Downing Street insisted that a final deal had not yet been struck.

As pressure builds on the Prime Minister, who is also facing calls to allow MPs a vote on any final deal, the Times newspaper reported that some ministers could be prepared to resign if Mr Sunak’s solution to the protocol risks the place of Northern Ireland within the UK.

A No10 source told PA news agency that central to Mr Sunak’s focus was safeguarding Northern Ireland’s place in the Union.

There are hopes that a fresh settlement on post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland will be able to secure the return of powersharing at the Stormont Assembly, after the DUP walked out in protest at the protocol last February.

Former PM Boris Johnson has warned against axing the current Northern Ireland Protocol bill, saying any such move would be ‘a big mistake’

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission Ursula von der Leyen as they meet at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday 

On Monday, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and the EU’s Maros Sefcovic agreed to hold a face-to-face meeting in the coming days after a ‘productive’ video discussion.

Sources in Brussels welcomed the move to schedule in-person talks as a positive step, but said a location had not been set.

Focus has also turned to the fate of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which is currently stalled in the Lords and would allow ministers to override parts of the protocol, after Boris Johnson called on ministers to press on with legislation enabling them to override parts of the protocol.

The intervention by the former prime minister, who negotiated the protocol but whose Government also tabled the Bill at Westminster after unionist outcry at the deal, was a sign that some backbenchers may try to scupper any agreement brokered by Mr Sunak if it fails to address longstanding gripes about the settlement in Northern Ireland.

Attorney General Victoria Prentis, a prominent Remainer, has warned the PM that the EU was likely to win a series of legal cases against the UK

Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Monday described the Bill as ‘one of the biggest tools that we have in solving the problem on the Irish Sea’.

Ms Braverman, a longstanding Eurosceptic, argued that Mr Sunak is right to be ‘committed to finding a pragmatic solution to resolve these issues’.

Sir Keir Starmer has urged the Prime Minister to allow the Commons to have its say on any final deal, offering Labour support to secure the approval of any new agreement in the event of any Tory rebellion.

It comes as former Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis threw his weight behind calls to reform some of the post-Good Friday Agreement architecture in Northern Ireland, arguing that it was failing to reflect the changed electoral landscape in the region.

‘The growth in the vote for the Alliance Party underlines the feeling that many more people now want to vote on issues, not on sectarian lines.

‘That should be embraced as the greatest success of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. But if the Agreement does not evolve further, under current rules, if Alliance and its vote share continues to grow, it will never have the right to nominate the First or Deputy First Minister.

‘Democracy cannot succeed when it is set in tram lines that can never cross,’ Mr Lewis wrote in the Telegraph newspaper.