Brexit: Breakup of UK ‘at stake’ if Northern Ireland Protocol deal isn’t reached

Published

2 years ago

February 21, 2023

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The breakup of the UK is “at stake” if a new deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland is not reached, a senior DUP politician warned.

Sammy Wilson MP said his party will continue with its protest at Stormont if EU rules aren’t removed in the region – saying this threatens Northern Ireland’s place in the union.

This has been a key sticking point for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is battling to reach a new settlement with Brussels to fix issues with the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol.

The mechanism was agreed as part of the Brexit deal to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland – which all parties agreed was necessary to preserve peace.

But because the Republic is in the EU, it means traders in Northern Ireland have to comply with single market rules, creating friction on the flow of goods between the region and the rest of the UK.

Mr Wilson told Sky News the DUP wants Northern Ireland to be “treated in the exactly the same way as the rest of the United Kingdom. In other words, that the laws which apply in Northern Ireland are UK laws, not EU laws”.

He added: “Essentially if a deal is agreed which still keeps us within the EU Single Market, as ministers in the Northern Ireland Assembly we would be required by law to implement that deal.

“And we’re not going to do that because we believe that such an arrangement is designed to take us out of the United Kingdom and indeed would take us out of the United Kingdom, because increasingly we would have to agree EU laws which diverge from UK laws and in doing so would separate our own country from the rest of the United Kingdom.”

Mr Wilson said the prime minister has a choice whether to “protect the union or the European Union”.

“It’s unreasonable to ask unionists to participate in an arrangement which is designed for the break-up of the union, and that’s what’s at stake here. And that’s why this is a historic moment for the prime minister,” he said.

Asked if he thought there would be a deal this week, as reports have suggested, he said: “No I don’t. He (Mr Sunak) realises that there are barriers and hills to climb. He knows the kind of issues that have to be dealt with. I hope he does go into negotiations with a full understanding of what is required.”

No ‘final deal’ yet

Downing Street has kept quiet about the details of what could be in the new deal.

On Monday, the prime minister’s official spokesperson said negotiations were continuing to resolve the outstanding issues and “you will hear our position should a deal be agreed”.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and the European Commission’s Maros Sefcovic will hold talks by video link on Monday afternoon.

The PM’s spokesman insisted there was not yet a “final deal” – and refused to say whether MPs will get to vote on it should there be one.

It comes amid mounting concerns a Tory civil war will stop an agreement getting over the line.

Pressure mounts on Sunak

Veteran Tory Eurosceptic Sir Bernard Jenkin said that any deal which did not lead to a return to powersharing at the Stormont Assembly by the DUP – which walked out in protest at the protocol early last year – would be “completely disastrous”.

However, ex-justice secretary and Brexit critic David Gauke said the DUP “cannot accept any realistically negotiable outcome and nor can some Tory MPs because they’re purists or opportunists”.

“He has to do a deal without them,” he tweeted.

It is understood Mr Sunak’s officials held talks with their Brussels counterparts on Sunday on how to give local politicians a greater say in the application of EU law in the region, addressing what unionists call the “democratic deficit”.

While it is thought the EU and UK are close to signing off a deal that would reduce protocol red tape on the movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, there is no expectation that Brussels is willing to agree to end the application of EU law in the region.

The EU contends that a fundamental part of the protocol – namely that Northern Ireland traders can sell freely into the European single market – is dependent on the operation of EU rules in the region.

What is the Brexit deal being discussed between UK and EU?

The talks that are ongoing are about part of the existing Brexit deal that relates to Northern Ireland.

Dubbed the “Northern Ireland Protocol”, it was agreed with the EU by Boris Johnson in 2020 – alongside the wider trade and cooperation treaty.

The point of it is to avoid a hard physical border on the island of Ireland – the only place where there is a land frontier between the UK and EU.

All parties agreed this was necessary to preserve peace on the island, and the protocol does this by placing Northern Ireland in a far tighter relationship with the EU, compared with the rest of the UK (because the Republic of Ireland is in the EU).

This led to goods travelling into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK being subject to EU import checks – effectively turning the Irish Sea into a trade border, which former prime minister Boris Johnson promised would not happen.

Unionists say this puts Northern Ireland at an economic disadvantage while threatening its place in the UK – and are refusing to cooperate with forming a powersharing government as a result.

There’s also concern over a so-called “democratic deficit” whereby Northern Ireland takes on rules from Brussels that it has no say over.

The role played by the European Court of Justice is a big sticking point: Because Northern Ireland is still subject to EU rules, Brussels believes its court should have a heavy involvement in resolving disputes.

But the DUP and some Conservative MPs see this as an erosion of the UK’s sovereignty and incompatible with the aims of Brexit.

Downing Street has kept quiet about the details of what could be in the new deal – but it is expected to include measures that reduce red tape on goods travelling to Northern Ireland and the UK, as well as some sort of compromise on the role of the ECJ.

There may be a “green lane” and “red lane” system to separate goods destined for Northern Ireland from those at risk of being transported to the Republic and on to the EU, which should reduce the need for physical checks and paperwork.

There could potentially be a mechanism whereby the ECJ can only decide on a dispute after a referral from a separate arbitration panel or a Northern Irish court.

The big unknown is whether the DUP will support the deal. The party has come up with seven “tests” that it will apply to any deal when deciding whether to back it, including no checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and no border in the Irish Sea.

If they don’t back a deal and continue their protest at Stormont – then a government in Northern Ireland can’t be formed.

That’s because the DUP is one of two parties that shares power in the devolved government in Northern Ireland – an arrangement made under the Good Friday Agreement which ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

Because the DUP are boycotting the Northern Ireland Assembly, this has meant the democratic institutions that are supposed to be running public services in Northern Ireland and representing voters haven’t been functioning properly for more than a year.

Pressure on Mr Sunak is mounting after his predecessor-but-one made a weekend intervention calling for him to take a tougher line with the EU.

A source close to Mr Johnson said his view was that “it would be a great mistake to drop the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill” – which would empower the UK to scrap parts of the treaty without the EU’s permission.

A senior government official indicated that a successful outcome of the negotiations would mean the controversial legislation – tabled at Westminster under Mr Johnson’s leadership but paused when Mr Sunak entered No 10 – would no longer be needed.

But some Tories quickly sided with the former prime minister, with Conservative former cabinet minister Simon Clarke and Lord Frost – who negotiated Mr Johnson’s original Brexit deal – urging the government to push ahead with the protocol bill.

Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt also said Mr Johnson’s warning was “not entirely unhelpful”, while Home Secretary Suella Braverman said on Monday that the legislation was “one of the biggest tools” at the government’s disposal for “solving” the issues in the Irish Sea.

Labour will vote with government on protocol

On Monday Sir Keir Starmer repeated that the opposition would back the government to get any deal through.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Thurrock in Essex, the Labour leader said: “There is a window of opportunity to move forward…the question now is whether the prime minister is strong enough to get it through his own backbenches.

“What I have said on Northern Ireland, the national interest comes first. So we will put party politics to one side. We will vote with the government and so the prime minister doesn’t have to rely on his backbenches.”

World

How Trump changed his mind on tariffs

Published

9 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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“Liberation Day” just gave way to Capitulation Day.

US President Donald Trump pulled back on Wednesday on a series of harsh tariffs targeting friends and foes alike in an audacious bid to remake the global economic order.

Mr Trump’s early afternoon announcement followed a harrowing week in which Republican lawmakers and confidants privately warned him that the tariffs could wreck the economy.

His own aides had quietly raised alarms about the financial markets before he suspended a tariff regime that he had unveiled with a flourish just one week earlier in a Rose Garden ceremony.

Tariffs latest: Beijing takes fight to Trump

The stock market rose immediately after the about-face, ending days of losses that have forced older Americans who’ve been sinking their savings into 401(k)s to rethink their retirement plans.

Ahead of Mr Trump’s announcement, some of his advisers had been in a near panic about the bond markets, a senior administration official told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.

Interest rates on 10-year Treasury bonds had been rising, contrary to what normally happens when stock prices fall and investors seek safety in treasuries.

The unusual dynamic meant that at the same time the tariffs could push up prices, people would be paying more to buy homes or pay off credit card debt because of higher interest rates. Businesses looking to expand would pay more for new loans.

Two of Mr Trump’s most senior advisers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, presented a united front on Wednesday, urging him to suspend the tariffs in light of the bond market, the administration official said.

In a social media post, Mr Trump announced a 90-day pause that he said he’ll use to negotiate deals with dozens of countries that have expressed openness to revising trade terms that he contends exploit American businesses and workers.

One exception is China. Mr Trump upped the tariff on the country’s biggest geopolitical rival to 125%, part of a tit-for-tat escalation in an evolving trade war.

Mr Trump reversed course one week after he appeared in the Rose Garden and unveiled his plan to bring jobs back to the United States. Displaying a chart showing the new, elevated tariffs that countries would face, Mr Trump proclaimed: “My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day.”

It proved short-lived. Markets plunged in anticipation of heightened trade wars, wiping out trillions of dollars in wealth.

Democrats seized on the issue, looking to undercut a source of Mr Trump’s popular appeal: the view that he can be trusted to steer the nation’s economy.

“Donald Trump’s market crash has vaporised a whopping $104,000 from the average retirement account,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, said on Wednesday on the Senate floor, hours before the president’s reversal.

The episode laid bare the rifts within Mr Trump’s team of senior advisers as the White House struggled to offer a clear, consistent argument about the duration of the tariffs.

While Mr Bessent seemed open to negotiations, Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser, appeared to take a more hard-line posture.

Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla chief executive who has been advising Mr Trump on the government workforce, called Navarro “dumber than a sack of bricks,” while Mr Navarro described Mr Musk as someone who is merely “a car assembler, in many cases”.

But the weeklong drama also underscored the peril of a policymaking process that is often tied to the wishes and vagaries of one man: Donald Trump.

Asked about the dust-up between Mr Musk and Mr Navarro, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a golf partner of Mr Trump’s, said: “I don’t think it matters. The only one who matters is Trump.”

Markets tend to favour predictability, as do business leaders deciding where to build new plants. When Mr Trump sets a course, however, there are bound to be detours.

A friend of his who spoke to him in recent days said Mr Trump gave no sign he was about to “back down quickly on this stuff”.

Mr Trump believes other countries trade unfairly and sees tariffs as a tool to make the United States more competitive, the person said.

“He’s very confident it’s going to work for him,” the person added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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And yet in the run-up to Wednesday’s announcement, Mr Trump and his aides were also hearing from GOP lawmakers and outside allies urging an alternative path.

One was Larry Kudlow, who hosts a show on Fox Business Network and was a senior economic adviser in Mr Trump’s first term.

Mr Kudlow told NBC News that he has had “ongoing” talks with friends in the West Wing about the need to negotiate with other countries before the United States slaps them with tariffs that stand in perpetuity.

Describing Mr Trump’s move Wednesday as “fabulous,” Mr Kudlow added: “Dealmaking is the best thing to do. In the last 48 hours, Trump has gone from non-negotiating to negotiating.

“It’s very clear that Bessent is now the point man on trade. Very clear.”

Anxious GOP lawmakers also weighed in.

Mr Graham said he spoke to Mr Trump at length on Tuesday night and told him he had been hearing from car manufacturers who are worried about how the tariffs would affect their business. BMW operates a plant in Mr Graham’s home state and is one of the companies he said he had spoken to.

Senator John Kennedy, a Republican lawmaker who was also in touch with the administration, said on Tuesday that he planned to have lunch with Mr Bessent. On Wednesday, he told NBC News he was also talking to the White House.

Mr Kennedy likened Mr Trump to the “pit bull who caught the car”. Now, he said, the question becomes: “What are you going to do with the car?”

After more market losses this week, and with pressure mounting from Republicans on Capitol Hill, Mr Trump began having second thoughts.

In his first term, he often viewed the ups and downs of the stock market as a kind of report card on his presidency, celebrating its rise. The downturn had got his attention.

“People were getting a little queasy,” he acknowledged Wednesday on an event with NASCAR racing champions.

“Over the last few days” he began to more seriously consider pausing the additional tariffs, he told reporters later in the day in an Oval Office appearance.

One prospect that intrigued him was personally negotiating new trade deals with the countries looking to get out from under the tariffs, the senior administration official said.

He’d made up his mind. Sitting with Mr Bessent and Mr Lutnick, he crafted the note announcing the 90-day postponement and ending, for the time being, the biggest economic crisis of his young presidency.

“We wrote it from our hearts, right?” Mr Trump said. “It was written as something that I think was very positive for the world and for us, and we don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt, and they all want to negotiate.”

The day closed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly 8%, erasing some – but not all – of the “post-Liberation Day” losses.

Messy as it all may have seemed, his administration insisted that all is unfolding as planned.

“You have been watching the greatest economic master strategy from an American president in history,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on Wednesday afternoon.

World

Andrew Tate ‘pointed gun at woman’s face’, court documents claim

Published

9 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Andrew Tate 'pointed gun at woman's face', court documents claim

Andrew Tate pointed a gun at a woman’s face and told her to do as he said, according to court documents seen by Sky News.

Warning: This article contains graphic details of alleged sexual abuse

The controversial social media influencer allegedly told her: “I’m a boss, you’re going to do as I say or there’ll be hell to pay.”

The woman, who worked for Tate on his online webcam business, alleges he threatened her daily.

She is one of four women who have launched a civil claim against Tate in the UK, with allegations including rape, assault and coercive control.

A spokesperson for Tate said he “categorically denies” the allegations.

In a statement, the spokesperson said: “Mr Tate categorically denies these unproven and untested allegations.

“Specifically, he denies ever threatening anyone with a firearm, engaging in non-consensual acts or subjecting any individual to physical or psychological harm.

“These are civil claims, brought years after the alleged events and following a CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) decision not to pursue criminal charges.

“It is deeply troubling that such graphic and one-sided accounts are being publicised before any judicial assessment has taken place.

“This type of reporting undermines the presumption of innocence and shapes public perception in a way that is fundamentally unjust.

“We have seen other high-profile cases where similarly serious allegations collapsed under scrutiny – but only after irreparable reputational harm had already been done.

“Mr Tate will defend himself vigorously and remains confident the truth will prevail.”

The civil action was launched in the High Court in London last week, and a preliminary hearing is to be held next week.

In the court documents, he describes the allegations as “a pack of lies”, and in a detailed response said: “There may have been a toy gun in the flat.”

The woman worked for Tate in Luton in 2015 and is claiming damages for “assault, battery and/or intentional infliction of harm, including rape”.

Tate, 37, and his brother Tristan, 35, are facing a trial in Romania, where they have been living for the past two years, on charges of sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

The Romanian authorities have agreed that after the completion of their own criminal justice process, the brothers can be extradited to the UK on allegations of rape and human trafficking.

The brothers, who have joint UK and US citizenship, are also under criminal investigation in Florida, where they visited recently after a Romanian judge lifted a travel ban on them.

They are currently in Dubai, but must return to Romania.

The four women claim Tate strangled them during sex, and two developed red spots from burst capillaries in their eyes from asphyxia.

In an interview with Sky News last year, one of the claimants said she had consensual sex with Tate during a normal relationship with him, but once lost consciousness when he strangled her.

She said: “We were having sex and he put his hands round my throat and strangled me until I lost consciousness. And when I came round he was still having sex with me, still on top of me.

“The next day, all the white had gone completely red in one of my eyes. I looked it up afterwards and it was just lack of oxygen to your brain where your blood vessels start bursting to try and get more oxygen into your brain. That was quite scary.”

She said she didn’t call police because she was young, inexperienced and didn’t realise how dangerous the encounter had been.

World

Inside a NATO base in Poland – as residents bordering Russia say ‘scare tactic’ is needed

Published

15 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Inside a NATO base in Poland - as residents bordering Russia say 'scare tactic' is needed

Along the thin strip of beach and woodland known as the Vistula Spit which marks the northernmost demarcation between Poland and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, there is not much in the way of a border.

Just some torn wire fencing and a few rotten posts which seem to stagger drunkenly into the shallows of the Baltic Sea.

Beneath a sign barring entry, we find a couple of empty bottles of Russian cognac and vodka.

It doesn’t feel like the edge of NATO territory.

“I don’t see much protection. It’s not good,” says Krzysztof from Katowice, who has come to inspect the border himself.

“We have to have some kind of scare tactic, something to show that we are trying to strengthen our army,” says Grzegorz, who lives nearby.

“At the same time I think I would not base the defence of our country solely on our army. I am convinced that Europe or America, if anything were to happen, will help us 100%.”

Poland is investing massively in its defence, with military spending set to hit 4.7% of GDP in 2025, more than any other NATO country.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he will introduce voluntary military training for men of any age, and women too should they wish, so the army has a competent reserve force in the event of war.

He is investing $2.5bn in stronger border fortifications between Russia and Belarus, a project called East Shield which will include anti-tank obstacles, bunkers and potentially minefields too.

Along with its Baltic neighbours, Poland is withdrawing from the Ottawa convention against the use of land mines. It hasn’t committed to using them, but it wants to have that option.

We’ve been granted access to one of the cornerstones of Polish, and European defence, which is a couple of hours drive from the Vistula spit at the Redowicze military base.

Aegis Ashore Poland, together with its sister site in Romania, are the land-based arms of NATO’s missile defence shield over Europe, which is run by the US navy.

They are symbols of the US commitment to NATO and to the protection of Europe.

And despite changes at the top of the Pentagon it is “business as usual”, says Captain Michael Dwan who oversees air and missile defence within the US Sixth Fleet.

“Our mission to work with NATO forces has been unchanged. And so our commitment from the United States perspective and what capability we bring to ballistic missile defence and the defence of NATO is championed here in Poland.”

As far as Russia is concerned, NATO’s two missile defence bases in Romania and Poland represent a NATO threat on their doorstep and are therefore a “priority target for potential neutralisation”, per Russia’s foreign ministry.

NATO says the installations are purely defensive and their SM-3 interceptor missiles are not armed and are not intended to carry warheads. Russia counters they could easily be adapted to threaten Russia.

Not the case, Captain Dwan says.

“It’s not a matter of moving offensive weapons here into the facility, the hardware and the infrastructure is simply not installed.

“It would take months or years to change the mission of this site and a significant amount of money and capability and design.”

With so much marked “secret” on the site, it seems amazing to be granted the access.

But for NATO, transparency is part of deterrence. They want potential adversaries to know how sophisticated their radar and interception systems are.

They know that if they carried warheads on site, that would make them a target so they don’t.

Deterrence also depends on whether potential adversaries believe in the US’s commitment to NATO and to Europe’s defence.

On an operational level, as far as the troops are concerned, that commitment may still be iron-clad.

But as far as its commander-in-chief goes, there is still – as with so much around Donald Trump’s presidency – a great deal of uncertainty.

In the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon President Trump suggested he might bundle a potential US troop drawdown in Europe together with the issue of EU trade and tariffs.

“Nice to wrap it up in one package,” he said, “it’s nice and clean”.

Probably not the way Europe sees it, not with a resurgent Russia on their doorstep, economic tailwinds breeding animosity and the notion of Pax Americana crumbling at their feet.