NI Brexit deal: DUP chief whip says party should have a say on Windsor Framework
Rishi Sunak was in Belfast on Tuesday (28 February) to seek support after securing a deal with the EU on post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland. He later returned to London to answer questions from his party's MPs.
The Prime Minister agreed the ‘Windsor Framework’ on Monday (27 February), alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to make changes to the Northern Irelandprotocol. His next challenge is to win over the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), and secure the backing of the more Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers.
Today (1 March) he will face MPs at Prime Minister's Questions.
NI Brexit deal - latest updates
DUP should be given 'time and space’ to consider Brexit deal says Sunak
Rishi Sunak has said that the DUP should be given the time and space to consider whether the party will accept the new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, and has urged his MPs not to “create drama” over the new agreement.
Speaking at the 1922 Committee meeting, Sunak said that he was “confident” that the DUP will eventually accept the terms of the Windsor Framework, adding that the agreement was the best offer the UK may well receive.
He said: I would just say one thing to you all: we should give him and the DUP time and space. So let’s not pressure them for an instant answer.”
“Let’s also remember that the last thing the public want is another Westminster drama.”
The DUP walked out of the power-sharing executive in Stormont over the Northern Ireland Protocol, with the Northern Irish assembly failing to have a sitting government since February 2022.
The party is now contemplating whether to accept the new deal and return to Stormont.
DUP 'should have a say on whether NI becomes EU colony' - Sammy Wilson
The DUP should have a say on whether Northern Ireland “become(s) a colony of the EU”, the party’s chief whip said.
“As members of the United Kingdom and in a democracy, we should have a say as to whether or not we are hived off and become a colony of the EU,” Sammy Wilson told Times Radio.
“It’s not the duty of the UK Government to safeguard the single market of the EU at the expense of the integrity and the unity of its own country. But that’s what’s happening at present.”
He added that the involvement of the King in Monday’s finalising of the Windsor Framework indicated it was “not a great deal”.
“I think first of all it’s really an indication the government knew this deal was not a great deal and were trying to persuade unionists to accept it on the basis that we have great respect for the monarchy,” he said.
“To use the monarch in the way in which he has been used, I think, is a very, very dangerous thing.”
The DUP will “decide how we convey our concern about that”, he added.
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