25 FEBRUARY 2023 | NEWS
It is understood in Westminster that Downing Street intends to announce a major breakthrough – and possibly final agreement – on a new deal for Northern Ireland customs checks resulting from Brexit in the coming week.
It follows a week of disappointment for the Government, which had been expecting to make an announcement last week on its progress. However, deals negotiated with the EU generally do “go down to the wire”, as one source who spoke to Wolves confirmed.
The news comes amid controversy that the DUP – which has refused to enter into a power-sharing agreement with Sinn Féin since the Northern Ireland Assembly election last year – says it has not yet been properly consulted on the terms of the proposed new deal.
Its leader since June 2021, Sir Jeffery Donaldson, has reportedly had a series of very “frank” conversations with the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who is said to be withholding the text of the deal from both the DUP and members of his own parliamentary party until it has been finalised.
But one source familiar with the negotiations said: “He could have had those conversations earlier, but would that have changed the situation with the EU?”
Under the terms of the new deal, there will be ‘green lanes’ for goods destined for Northern Ireland, while ‘red lanes’ will also exist for goods destined for the Republic of Ireland, which remains within the EU and therefore within its Single Market and Customs Union.
This is intended to remove the current de facto trade border down the Irish Sea between one part of the UK and another. The final barrier is said to be the extent to which rulings by the European Court of Justice will apply as the ultimate arbiter of any disputes between the UK and the EU over issues relating to trade with Northern Ireland.
It is understood that there is optimism within Government circles that a final deal can be reached in the next week, although it has also faced severe criticism for the way the process has been handled, with one source said to have questioned the Prime Minister’s “political nous”.
Separately, PoliticsHome reports that Sammy Wilson, the DUP MP for East Antrim, said: “Given the Government knew what was being talked about and the areas under discussion, there was no excuse to not have spoken to us at an earlier stage.
“We could have said to them: ‘Look, there’s a gap in what you’re looking at and if you don’t fill it, there will be difficulty’.
“The fact that there is a huge gap in what has been agreed has arisen because of that. That gap still would have been there, as the EU has not been willing to concede on the role of its law in Northern Ireland, but the Government wouldn’t have publicly talked about a deal being imminent.”
It is also understood that the DUP has felt “patronised” by Sunak’s administration, with one source reporting that they feel the Prime Minister lacks “empathy” with the situation in Northern Ireland, which has faced goods shortages since the introduction of the NI Protocol.
And a member of the Northern Irish Conservative Executive Council told Wolves that if EU law were to continue to apply in Northern Ireland, this “won’t go down well with the local party, especially as we go into a local election in May”.
The source added that: “If EU law applies under this deal, then Rishi has given Von der Leyen more say over the lives of us who live here than the King, and it’s a disgrace.” They also expressed a preference for proceeding with the Government’s planned Northern Ireland Protocil Bill regardless, were this to be the case.
Earlier, it was reported that Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, had been due to meet with King Charles last week – giving a strong signal that a deal was within reach – although it is now understood that this was never the intention.
It is also understood that the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, will now not be undertaking a previously planned trip to the Middle East, suggesting that the announcement of a new deal could be only days away.
Any further details will be reported as they emerge in the coming week.
