A senior Tory MP has dampened down the prospect of a Brexit deal on Northern Ireland, telling Sky News the powersharing crisis will not be resolved because the negotiations are “too narrow”.
Sir Bernard Jenkin, a veteran Eurosceptic, also suggested there should be a “customs frontier” between the north and south of Ireland to fix issues with the contentious protocol.
The mechanism was put in place as part of Boris Johnson’s “oven-ready” Brexit deal to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, which all sides agreed was necessary to preserve peace.
But unionists are unhappy about the economic barriers it has created on trade being shipped from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, with a customs border effectively imposed in the Irish Sea – something the former prime minister promised would not happen.
Rishi Sunak has been battling to reach a new deal on the post-Brexit arrangements, but Sir Bernard played down suggestions a breakthrough could be days away.
Asked how close a deal is he said: “I fear not very close, because what’s been happening is the government has been strenuously trying to reach an agreement, but within very narrow confines.
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“The EU has said they won’t consider reopening their mandate to look at new ways of approaching the whole question of Northern Ireland post-Brexit, and the consequence is that the negotiations have been on a very narrow mandate set by the EU and it doesn’t look as though the government can resolve the powersharing crisis with any deal that will emerge from these negotiations.“
The powersharing crisis relates to the ongoing protest by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Belfast of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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The DUP argues the protocol compromises Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and has refused to co-operate with forming a devolved government in Stormont until it is abandoned or replaced.
Image: Sir Bernard Jenkin called for a trade border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
There is also anger over the so-called “democratic deficit” caused by Northern Ireland still being subject to some EU rules so that goods can move freely into the Republic of Ireland – which the DUP and Tory MPs see as an erosion of the UK’s sovereignty and incompatible with the aims of Brexit.
Deal that doesn’t remove protocol ‘unconscionable’
Sir Bernard suggested the only way to restore powersharing – a founding principle of the Good Friday Agreement – was for the protocol to be axed and replaced with a trade border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
He said the government should revisit a ditched proposal from the 2020 negotiations for an “invisible north-south border”.
“The obvious answer is to go back to that proposal now that we have unlimited time, and aim towards creating a customs frontier between (Northern) Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but withoutactual checks or infrastructure at the border,” he said.
Sir Bernard used the fact there are no border checks on people to support his idea.
“It should not be too difficult to have a customs frontier without infrastructure,” he added.
Asked what that would mean for the Good Friday Agreement – which promised to keep the border open – Sir Bernard said it would “actually restore it”.
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4:03
Sky’s David Blevins explains issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol
“The collapse of the Good Friday Agreement is an absolute catastrophe of political tensions arising. There’s nobody objecting in Northern Ireland to the border being in a different place or there being different arrangements to deal with this issue.”
Sir Bernard – a member of the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs – went on to criticise Labour for suggesting they would support a deal without seeing the details first, saying it would be “unconscionable to sign an agreement with the EU that cements in place the protocol”.
However, shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry doubled down on this position – saying Mr Sunak does not need to worry about the Eurosceptic factions of his party scuppering a deal if he brings an agreement forward to parliament for a vote.
“The prime minister can rely on us to support him,” she told Sky News.
“He doesn’t have to negotiate with his head-bangers in the Tory party who – I don’t know what they want – but whatever they want is not in the country’s interests.
“We need to come to a solution and the government can, if it’s in the interests of the country, rely on us.”
Ms Thornberry agreed there should not be a border in the Irish Sea – as is currently the case – but rather a “soft” border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
She did not provide details on how this would work – rather just saying it would be “as soft” and “as discreet” as possible.
Sunak ‘won’t sell anyone out’
Meanwhile, veterans affairs minister Johnny Mercer defended Mr Sunak’s approach, saying he had “good discussions last week with the European Union” and had “good engagement going on with other MPs”.
He told Sky News: “Let’s give the prime minister a chance to come out with something.
“He’s attacking this, he is throwing everything he can. He voted for and campaigned hard for Brexit, right?
“So he is not going to sell anyone out or come up with a solution that is unfair or doesn’t deliver on what he thinks is Brexit.”
As riots broke out across the country last summer following the Southport attack, fear spread in a majority Muslim part of Birmingham that far-right protesters were on their way.
Locals came out on to the streets, and as I was reporting live on air, I was surrounded by a small group of masked men, swearing and gesturing to the camera.
Afterwards, as we were trying to drive away from the area, a man with a knife followed us and attempted to slash a tyre on our broadcast van.
Image: The moment Becky Johnson was confronted on camera last summer
A year on, I have returned to the area to discuss what happened with some of those who saw their city descend into chaos.
“The local community had lost faith in the local elected members as well as the local policing units,” says Naeem Yousef, 48, who lives nearby.
“They thought…the only way to protect themselves and the community was by coming out in force.”
‘You can’t control their behaviour’
Tanveer Choudhry, 56, agrees. “In every community we have our sort of, shall we call them… idiots, and you can’t control their behaviour,” he says.
“I think there was a concern that the far-right group that was coming may well be armed… so I think it was just trying to counteract what they thought was coming.”
We are sitting in a cafe, not far from where the unrest broke out last summer.
Image: Masked men surrounded the Sky team during the unrest
‘They were looking for who they thought were the enemy’
The group I’m with were invited by community activist Naveed Sadiq, who was there that day.
As well as Naveed, there are three other local Muslim men, and two white residents, including Gerry Moynihan.
He recalls deciding to stay at home that day.
“They were looking for what they thought were the enemy – white people – and trying to find white people,” he says.
“Which is why I stayed in my house, because the intelligence I had was, don’t get involved, don’t walk around, and you know, it will pass.”
I ask the group if my team and I were targeted because we were white.
Image: Gerry Moynihan says he decided not to leave his home
“It’s not because you’re white, it’s because they’re actually bored,” Naveed says. “They were wanting a bit of excitement.”
I ask if they think it would have happened if we were all British Asian.
“Of course,” Tanveer replies. “It wasn’t the fact that you were white… it was just the heat of the moment”.
Naeem believes it happened simply because the men involved “do not want anyone filming what they’re doing”.
“You could have been Asian… they would still try to get you out of the area,” he insists.
Image: Tanveer believes our team would still have been targeted if we were a different ethnicity
‘Are we going to be accepted?’
I’m keen to understand how these men feel now and whether the sentiment that brought people out on to the streets to “protect” them has been reignited by the recent protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers.
The answer, from Joe Khann, a local Muslim man, would surprise many.
“I would like to go and join them,” he says, referring to the anti-immigration protesters who have gathered several times in Epping.
“We have this problem within our own communities, and people don’t talk about it. We feel exactly the same and we understand how the English feel with the immigration,” he explains.
Image: ‘We feel exactly the same’ on immigration, says Joe Khann
“We’re having people who are getting married back home, they get married for six months, get divorced…and the government gives them all their help to get accommodation, their national insurance numbers and all that,” he says.
“We’re getting fed up within our own community because we hear this constantly.”
However, he thinks if he did try to join in protests, people would “think I’m an immigrant”.
He says he is “born here, 58, and they look at me as a foreigner or a migrant”.
Naeem agrees. “The question is for us now, as people who are born and bred in this country, what is our identity? Who are we?” he asks.
“As a white person born in this country, you are automatically accepted. Are we going to be accepted? How many generations will it take for us to be accepted?”
Image: Naeem (left) says even those born in the UK question their identity
‘You have to blame someone’
Naeem is also concerned about immigration.
“We have an influx of people that we do not know about, and they have no loyalty to the area,” he says.
“I believe that the average white guy… isn’t racist, they’re just fed up,” adds Naveed.
However, these men do have grievances, particularly with the media.
“We feel that we have a two-tier journalists system where when the colour is like mine we get different justice and when the colour is a bit paler it’s different,” Naveed says.
Image: ‘When the colour is like mine we get different justice,’ says Naveed (left)
‘We have become the bogeyman’
“When there’s criminality, and it’s on the news, a Muslim has to be identified by his religion,” Naeem says.
He believes Muslims have become the “bogeyman” in many people’s minds.
“Where you don’t have housing for example, where the crime has increased, you have to blame someone,” he says.
“Prior it was the Irish community, now it’s the Muslim community.
“It’s a distraction from the actual real issues and how you can resolve them but let’s just put it on to the Muslim community for now, let’s just distract the whole nation and say look it’s the problem with asylum, it’s a problem with Muslims,” he says.
After leaving, I head over to the spot on the roundabout where my team were targeted last year.
As I stand there, my colleague sees a man imitating pulling the trigger of a gun at me from his car.
Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron’s migrant deal comes into force today, with detentions set to begin by the end of the week.
The “one in, one out” pilot scheme – which allows the UK to send some people who have crossed the Channel back to France in exchange for asylum seekers with ties to Britain – was signed last week, and has now been approved by the European Commission.
It comes as 2025 is on course to be a record year for crossings.
Approximately 25,436 people have already made the journey this year, according to PA news agency analysis of Home Office figures – 49% higher than at the same point in 2024.
The scheme also means that anyone arriving in a small boat can be detained immediately, with space set aside at immigration removal centres in anticipation of their arrival.
Sir Keir said the ratification of the treaty will “send a clear message – if you come here illegally on a small boat you will face being sent back to France”.
Ministers have so far declined to say how many people could be returned under the deal, however, there have been reports that under the scheme only 50 people a week will be returned to France.
Analysis: Deal will need to go much further to work
Sky News political correspondent Rob Powellsaid while it was a “policy win” for the government, the numbers must eventually “go a lot higher” than 50 per week if it is to work as a deterrent.
“The average crossing rate is about 800 a week, so this will need to go up by a sizeable factor for that message to start seeping through to people trying to make that crossing,” Powell added.
The aim will be to make asylum seekers believe the “risk of going back to France is so big that they shouldn’t bother parting with their cash and paying smugglers” to make the crossing.
Image: Migrants in Dunkirk, France, preparing to cross the English Channel.
The Conservatives have branded the agreement a “surrender deal” and said it will make “no difference whatsoever”.
Under the terms of the agreement, adults arriving on small boats will face being returned to France if their asylum claim is inadmissible.
In exchange, the same number of people will be able to come to the UK on a new legal route, provided they have not attempted a crossing before and subject to stringent documentation and security checks.
The pilot scheme is set to run until June 2026, pending a longer-term agreement.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will face questions on the agreement on Sky News Breakfast this morning.
Police are warning of mass arrests if a protest in support of the banned group Palestine Action goes ahead on Saturday.
Hundreds of people are expected to turn out for the demonstration, which is understood to be planned for London.
However, the Metropolitan Police said “anyone showing support for the group can expect to be arrested.”
“We are aware that the organisers of Saturday’s planned protest are encouraging hundreds of people to turn out with the intention of placing a strain on the police and the wider criminal justice system,” said a spokesperson.
The organisers, a pressure group called Defend Our Juries, denied their protest will try to overwhelm the police and justice system.
“If we are allowed to protest peacefully and freely, then that is no bother to anyone,” said the group in a statement.
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What’s happening to Palestine Action?
Palestine Action was banned under terrorism laws after two aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton on 20 June.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the vandalism of the planes was “disgraceful” and accused the group of a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage”.
The ban means membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
More than 200 people supporting the group were arrested at Defend Our Juries protests across the UK last month, many of whom held placards with the message: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.”
Downing Street has urged people not to attend this weekend’s protest.
Image: Monday’s protesters waved flags and banged pan lids
It comes after around 40 people gathered outside Labour HQ on Monday to protest the party’s stance on Gaza.
They were watched by a small group of police officers as they chanted phrases including: “Shame on Keir Starmer, shame on the Labour Party, shame on David Lammy.”
Separately, the Board of Deputies of British Jews has also confirmed it will protest this weekend, with community organisations marching through central London to Downing Street on Sunday.
They are calling for the government not to recognise the state of Palestine without all hostages taken by Hamas being released.
Last week, Sir Keir Starmer said he planned to recognise Palestine by the UN General Assembly meeting in September, unless Israel met certain conditions including agreeing a ceasefire and improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza.