Rishi Sunak has been warned that he risks fanning the flames of a Tory civil war over Brexit if he pushes for a Northern Ireland deal with the EU.
The prime minister today signaled his intention to approve the deal negotiated with Brussels on Monday, despite furious opposition from conservative eurosceptics and the Democratic Unionist Party.
He insisted the deal would work for the whole of Britain and warned opponents, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to put peace in Northern Ireland above their personal ambitions.
In words that could be seen as a slight to Mr Johnson, who campaigned for the 2019 election on the banner of ‘finish Brexit’, Mr Sunak told the Sunday Times today: ‘There is unfinished business on Brexit and I want to finish the work. .’
Last week, Johnson warned Sunak that it would be a “big mistake” to abandon the Northern Ireland Protocol bill.
Sunak will invite cabinet ministers to number 10 on Sunday to brief them on the details of what he has secured so far.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday that he was hopeful there would be “good news in a matter of days, not weeks”.
The prime minister today signaled his intention to approve the deal negotiated with Brussels on Monday, despite furious opposition from conservative eurosceptics and the Democratic Unionist Party.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab today told Sky News’ Ridge on Sunday that he was hopeful there would be “good news in a matter of days, not weeks”.
In words that could be seen as a slight to Mr Johnson, who campaigned for the 2019 election on the banner of ‘finish Brexit’, Mr Sunak told the Sunday Times today: ‘There is unfinished business on Brexit and I want to finish the work. .’
Charles’ visit to Berlin and Paris next month, his first trip abroad as monarch, is seen as a charm offensive as the prime minister tries to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol with Brussels.
But some senior Tories last night accused their leader of exploiting the Royal Family for his short-term political gains, amid growing party infighting over post-Brexit talks.
Sunak said he was hopeful of a “positive outcome” in talks with the European Union as Westminster prepared to present a new protocol.
The British leader wants to make sure the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) agrees to his final deal as he seeks to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland.
The DUP refuses to take part in Stormont’s cross-community delegate government alongside Sinn Fein in protest at the impact the Brexit treaty is having on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The party has issued seven tests that Mr Sunak’s deal will need to meet to win his support, including tackling what it calls Northern Ireland’s ‘democratic deficit’ which is subject to EU rules without a say in them.
The prime minister promised that “whatever we do will tick all those boxes” in terms of unionist concerns.
A protocol agreement has been close to being announced for almost a week.
And after number 10 said “good progress” had been made during a Friday call between the prime minister and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a breakthrough seemed imminent.
The prime minister has been accused of embroiling the King in toxic Brexit politics by sending him on a controversial tour to “talk” to EU nations.
However, a plan for von der Leyen to travel to Britain on Saturday to meet Sunak and then have afternoon tea with the King at Windsor Castle was scrapped on Friday night.
Downing Street has since said “intensive” talks between London and Brussels are ongoing.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Saturday UK-EU talks were “inching towards conclusion”, calling on all parties to “go the extra mile” to sign off on negotiations.
What is the Brexit dispute about and what has been the impact on Northern Ireland?
The UK and the EU have been involved in substantive negotiations over the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol to 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.
Instead of being an internal EU line between two countries, with Brexit it became a border between the bloc and a third country with different customs and trade rules.
In any other case, it would be resolved simply by creating a ‘hard’ border: physical checks on vehicles and people traveling 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 prevent this, the protocol created economic barriers to trade being sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
It has proven deeply unpopular with unionists, who say it has weakened Northern Ireland’s place within the UK.
Last year, the DUP collapsed the power-sharing institutions in Stormont in protest of the fixes. It came as Sinn Fein replaced the party as the largest in power-sharing government for the first time.
And the DUP refuses to back a deal and restart power-sharing unless their concerns are addressed. They have set seven tests that you must pass to be approved.
The prime minister told The Sunday Times that he was continuing to push for a final deal with the bloc.
“I’m here all weekend trying to do it,” he told the newspaper.
We are giving it everything we have.
He admitted there were examples ‘where Northern Ireland is felt not to be part of the Union’ and that the protocol had ‘unbalanced’ the Good Friday Agreement which helped end the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Citing the example of not being able to implement reforms to alcohol tax in Northern Ireland when he was chancellor, as protocol dictates that it falls under EU single market rules for taxation, Sunak vowed to work to meet the demands. unionists with whatever deal they get. .
“I’m a Conservative, a Brexiteer and a trade unionist, and whatever we do will tick all those boxes, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to me, let alone anyone else,” he told The Sunday. Times.
Several reports have suggested that a UK-EU deal is almost done, with Sunak holding off on an announcement until he is sure it will be accepted.
No 10 denies this, but reports suggest that Sunak has obtained concessions that will facilitate the flow of trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, a great nightmare for unionists.
GB’s trusted merchants in Northern Ireland will reportedly not need to undergo checks as part of the plans, while VAT rates, taxes and state aid policy will be set by Westminster rather than Brussels as part of the offer on the table.
The Prime Minister has also reportedly negotiated a means by which the Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast will receive pre-legislative scrutiny on new EU laws in a bid to eliminate the so-called “democratic deficit”.
Downing Street will be eagerly awaiting Boris Johnson’s opinion on the new terms, and the former prime minister recently implored Sunak not to abandon his Northern Ireland Protocol bill, which would unilaterally overwrite parts of the treaty.
The Sunday Times reported that Mr Johnson, called in to back up what Mr Sunak is saying to appease the White House, responded by saying: ‘Fuck the Americans’.
A source close to Mr Johnson told PA: “This was a joking conversation on camera that someone clearly didn’t understand.”
That’s not the kind of language I would use.
Fresh speculation about a new pact comes after Downing Street came under fire for a proposed meeting between EU leader Ms von der Leyen and the King.
Number 10 is said to have envisioned branding Mr Sunak’s agreement the “Windsor Agreement” if the German politician had been content to sign an agreement while in Britain.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson accused the prime minister of “dragging the King onto a hugely controversial political issue”.
A UK government source said it would not have been inappropriate for the King to meet a visiting European leader.
The source told the PA news agency that he was “wrong to suggest that the King would be involved in anything remotely political.”
Buckingham Palace had no comment.