RISHI Sunak’s Northern Ireland Brexit fix was dealt a blow today after hard-line unionists vowed to vote against it on Wednesday.
The Democratic Unionist Party will “unanimously” reject the Windsor Framework agreed with Brussels earlier this month when MPs get their first say on the terms this week.
DUP boss Sir Jeffery Donaldson has said the deal needs more work
They ordered the PM back to the table to give Belfast a bigger say over stopping EU laws being forced on the province due to the shared land border with the Irish republic.
The DUP’s decision is a major blow to Downing Street who are battling to contain a rebellion by Brexiteer Tory MPs who are unhappy that settlement leaves Brussels with a say over Northern Irish trade and laws.
Mr Sunak has been courting DUP leader Sir Jeffery Donaldson, with some in No10 hoping he could be convinced to abstain in Wednesday’s crunch vote.
But today he said while the Windsor Framework represented “significant progress” in addressing concerns with the Northern Ireland Protocol he said it does not deal with some of the “fundamental problems at the heart of our current difficulties”.
“It is our party view that there remain key areas of concern which require further clarification, re-working and change as well as seeing further legal text,” the DUP leader said.
“There is no doubt it is vital that the Northern Ireland Assembly must have at its disposal democratic mechanisms that are effective in law and which underscore the role of the locally elected representatives of the people of Northern Ireland to determine whether amended or new laws are implemented.
“Notwithstanding the issues and conditions which have to be met to make the brake work, it remains the case that the brake is not designed for, and therefore cannot apply, to the EU law which is already in place and for which no consent has been given for its application.
“Whilst representing real progress, the ‘brake’ does not deal with the fundamental issue which is the imposition of EU law by the protocol.”
FIRST VOTE ON BREXIT DEAL
The vote will be on secondary legislation that would give effect to one particularly aspect of the framework, the “Stormont brake” mechanism.
The brake would allow a minority of MLAs at Stormont to formally flag concerns about the imposition of new EU laws in Northern Ireland – a move that could see the UK government veto their introduction in the region.
The proposed statutory instrument on the brake is due to be published on Monday ahead of Wednesday’s vote.
The DUP is currently blocking devolution at Stormont in protest at the terms of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol.
The protocol was designed to prevent a hardening of the land border on the island of Ireland and moved regulatory and customs checks to the Irish Sea, creating economic barriers on the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The UK and EU agreed the framework as a way to cut the red tape created by the protocol.
