Rishi Sunak told parties in Northern Ireland that significant progress has been made toward agreeing new post-Brexit trading arrangements for the region, though a deal with the European Union has yet to be finalized.
(Bloomberg) — Rishi Sunak told parties in Northern Ireland that significant progress has been made toward agreeing new post-Brexit trading arrangements for the region, though a deal with the European Union has yet to be finalized.
The UK prime minister on Friday held a series of meetings with politicians in Northern Ireland to discuss the status of discussions with the EU to resolve the biggest hangover of Britain’s exit from the bloc three years ago — how goods move between the region and the rest of the UK.
At stake are both the UK’s relationship with its biggest trading partner and the future of Northern Ireland’s devolved government. That’s because the Democratic Unionist Party has blocked formation of the power-sharing administration in protest against the so-called protocol, the part of the Brexit deal governing Northern Ireland trade.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson emerged from talks with Sunak saying “there is no doubt that progress has been made,” but some areas remain outstanding and his party would await the final text of any agreement before deciding whether it is prepared to give its seal of approval.
The DUP’s verdict is the most keenly anticipated by Northern Ireland-watchers. The party has set seven tests it wants any accord to pass before making a decision.
Sunak told parties that a deal hasn’t yet been finalized, both the Social Democratic and Labour Party’s Claire Hanna and the Ulster Unionist Party’s Doug Beattie said, while Sinn Fein reported “significant” progress.
Beattie told reporters that Sunak told him there “may be something this weekend” but cautioned that there may be a “stumbling block that may push it on for another week or so.” Sunak said he was confident the deal he puts on the table will be “a deal that unionism can accept,” Beattie said.
For her part, Hanna told Bloomberg after her meeting with the premier and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris that “we assume he’s going through these motions so he can go back to the EU and say ‘I have a final request’.
‘Upselling’
“They are upselling,” Hanna said. “The EU is basically saying this is minor implementation change and the UK is saying this is substantial change. The truth is somewhere in between.”
Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald told reporters that “very very significant progress has been made and I believe that a deal is absolutely possible,” following her meeting with Sunak.
Diplomatic Flurry
Friday’s outreach is part of a wider series of meetings that appear geared toward finalizing a deal between the UK and EU. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly met European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic Friday. And in another indication a deal may be close, Cleverly will also meet Ireland’s foreign minister Micheal Martin. Martin is scheduled to talk with Sefcovic in Brussels on Sunday.
Bloomberg reported this week that the UK and EU expect to announce an agreement in the coming days. It could come early next week, the person familiar said. Sunak is expected to hold talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Munich Security Conference in Germany this weekend, where Brexit would be discussed, they added.
UK and EU negotiators were nearing a provisional agreement on a solution for the years-long disagreement on the Protocol at the end of January. The two sides had been locked in intensive negotiations for weeks, with officials close to a deal covering most pending issues, including on customs, state aid and sanitary checks on agri-food goods.
If a deal is finalized, Sunak will have to walk a political tightrope to sell it to Northern Irish unionists and members of his own ruling Conservatives.
Tory Brexiteers
The government will try to convince the DUP that the agreement meets their concerns about Northern Ireland’s role in the UK in the coming weeks, people familiar with the matter said. Sunak’s government believes the deal will meet the DUP’s seven tests — which include demands to avoid diversion of trade and to give people in Northern Ireland a say in making the laws which govern them.
There’s a further domestic challenge for Sunak in selling any agreement to hard-line Brexiteers in his own Conservative Party. The party’s so-called European Research Group has said it would oppose any agreement that allowed the European Court of Justice to maintain jurisdiction on matters of EU law in Northern Ireland.
David Jones, a Tory MP who is part of the ERG, warned Sunak in a tweet Thursday that Northern Ireland “must cease to be subject to laws made in Brussels.”
“Anything less won’t work,” he said.
–With assistance from Alex Wickham, Jorge Valero, Kitty Donaldson and Peter O’Dwyer.
(Adds DUP reaction from paragraph four.)
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