RIshi Sunak unveiling 'Windsor Deal' for Northern Ireland Brexit rules

Can Rishi FINALLY settle Brexit? Sunak braces for Tory and DUP backlash as he prepares to unveil new ‘Windsor Deal’ for Northern Ireland TODAY alongside EU’s Ursula von der Leyen – claiming he has secured major concessions

• 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. 

Mr Sunak thrashed out the final details of 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 on Monday to meet the Prime Minister and shake hands on a new deal over post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland 

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

The location of the meeting in Windsor has raised the prospect that Ms von der Leyen could also hold talks with King Charles.

Unionists and some Tory MPs warned at the weekend against any move that would risk dragging the monarch into the contentious politics of Brexit. 

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.

The commission said the meeting will take place in Windsor, raising the prospect that Mrs von der Leyen may also hold talks with King Charles

Downing Street insisted that negotiations were still continuing last night after the PM and Mrs von der Leyen held talks by phone yesterday

What is the Brexit row about and what has been the impact on Northern Ireland?

The UK and the EU have been engaged in substantive 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.

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.

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 is expected to unveil the details in a statement to Parliament on Monday afternoon

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. 

Mr Sunak’s deal will create a ‘green lane’ that will scrap almost all EU checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from the UK. It will also give the province some input into new EU laws.

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.

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