Rishi Sunak‘s push for a new Brexit deal on Northern Ireland looks to be in chaos today with ministers threatening to quit if he makes too many concessions.
The government and EU have been in intensive discussion about how to overhaul the protocol, with signs over the weekend they were on the verge of an agreement.
However, the prospect has been thrown into doubt as the PM desperately tries to convince the DUP and his own party that Northern Ireland’s place in the UK can be protected.
Mr Sunak is gathering his Cabinet this morning amid warnings that ministers could walk out. He spent several hours yesterday trying to reassure Eurosceptic MPs, who are insisting that the DUP must approve any new terms.
Boris Johnson is among the senior figures urging the premier to push ahead with legislation – currently stalled in the Lords – that would allow the UK unilaterally to scrap key parts of the protocol.
Hopes of a breakthrough this week appear to be fading, with no appetite for announcements close to the anniversary of the outbreak Ukraine war on Friday.
Rishi Sunak is gathering his Cabinet this morning (pictured, Suella Braverman arriving) amid warnings that ministers could walk out if too many concessions are made over Northern Ireland Brexit rules
Boris Johnson (right) is among the senior figures urging Mr Sunak (left) to push ahead with legislation – currently stalled in the Lords – that would allow the UK unilaterally to scrap key parts of the protocol
Downing Street has been dodging on whether MPs will get a vote on any final deal.
But sent out to tour broadcast studios this morning, health minister Maria Caulfield urged colleagues to give Mr Sunak time and space.
She told Times Radio: ‘I think we need to support the Prime Minister.
‘There isn’t a deal done yet so all these rumours about ministers or MPs not being happy, I haven’t seen the details, we have to give the Prime Minister that time and space to get these negotiations done.
‘We need to give him the time and space to thrash out the final elements of any final deal.’
Home Secretary Suella Braverman risked raising the temperature last night by described the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill as ‘one of the biggest tools that we have in solving the problem on the Irish Sea’.
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However, Ms Braverman, a longstanding Eurosceptic, argued that Mr Sunak is right to be ‘committed to finding a pragmatic solution to resolve these issues’.
Ms Caulfield said: ‘I think what Suella has actually said is she welcomes the Prime Minister’s negotiations on this both with the EU and with politicians in Northern Ireland to try and get this resolved.
‘Absolutely the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill was put in place as a mechanism to fall back on and that’s still going through Parliament at the moment.’
One 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.’
Any deal on the protocol would be judged on whether it can secure the return of powersharing at the Stormont Assembly, after the DUP walked out in protest over post-Brexit arrangements last February.
Prominent Eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg compared Mr Sunak’s approach to that followed by his doomed predecessor Theresa May.
On his ConservativeHome podcast, the former Cabinet minister said: ‘There seems to me to be no point in agreeing a deal that does not restore power-sharing.
‘That must be the objective. If it doesn’t achieve that objective, I don’t understand why the Government is spending political capital on something that won’t ultimately succeed.’
Yesterday 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.
The European Research Group (ERG), a band of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, are expected to meet for talks later.
Keir Starmer has offered Labour support to secure the approval of any new agreement in the event of any Tory rebellion – but that would be hugely toxic politically for Mr Sunak.
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,’ Mr Lewis wrote in the Telegraph newspaper.
‘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.’
