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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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.”
The IDF has admitted to mistakenly identifying a convoy of aid workers as a threat – following the emergence of a video which proved their ambulances were clearly marked when Israeli troops opened fire on them.
The bodies of 15 aid workers – including eight medics working for the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) – were found in a “mass grave” after the incident, according to the head of the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Jonathan Whittall.
The Israeli military originally claimed an investigation found the vehicles did not have any headlights or emergency signals and were therefore targeted as they looked “suspicious”.
But video footage obtained by the PRCS, and verified by Sky News, showed the ambulances and a fire vehicle clearly marked with flashing red lights.
In a briefing from the IDF, they said the ambulances arrived in the Tel Sultan neighbourhood in Rafah shortly after a Hamas police vehicle drove through.
Image: Palestinians mourning the medics after their bodies were recovered. Pic: Reuters
An IDF surveillance aircraft was watching the movement of the ambulances and notified troops on the ground. The IDF said it will not be releasing that footage.
When the ambulances arrived, the soldiers opened fire, thinking the medics were a threat, according to the IDF.
The soldiers were surprised by the convoy stopping on the road and several people getting out quickly and running, the IDF claimed, adding the soldiers were unaware the suspects were in fact unarmed medics.
An Israeli military official would not say how far away troops were when they fired on the vehicles.
The IDF acknowledged that its statement claiming that the ambulances had their lights off was incorrect, and was based on the testimony from the soldiers in the incident.
The newly emerged video footage showed that the ambulances were clearly identifiable and had their lights on, the IDF said.
The IDF added that there will be a re-investigation to look into this discrepancy.
Image: The clip is filmed through a vehicle windscreen – with three red light vehicles visible in front
Addressing the fact the aid workers’ bodies were buried in a mass grave, the IDF said in its briefing this is an approved and regular practice to prevent wild dogs and other animals from eating the corpses.
The IDF could not explain why the ambulances were also buried.
The IDF said six of the 15 people killed were linked to Hamas, but revealed no detail to support the claim.
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Bodies of aid workers found in Gaza
The newly emerged footage of the incident was discovered on a phone belonging to one of the workers who was killed, PRCS president Dr Younis Al Khatib said.
“His phone was found with his body and he recorded the whole event,” he said. “His last words before being shot, ‘Forgive me, mom. I just wanted to help people. I wanted to save lives’.”
Sky News used an aftermath video and satellite imagery to verify the location and timing of the newly emerged footage of the incident.
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Aid worker attacks increasing
It was filmed on 23 March north of Rafah and shows a convoy of marked ambulances and a fire-fighting vehicle travelling south along a road towards the city centre. All the vehicles visible in the convoy have their flashing lights on.
The footage was filmed early in the morning, with a satellite image seen by Sky News taken at 9.48am local time on the same day showing a group of vehicles bunched together off the road.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at the US over its “weak” response to lethal Russian attacks on his hometown on Friday.
President Zelenskyy posted a lengthy and emotional statement on X about Russia’s strikes on Kryvyi Rih, which killed 19 people.
Meanwhile Ukrainian drones hit an explosives factory in Russia’s Samara region in an overnight strike, a member of Ukraine’s SBU security service told Reuters.
In his post, President Zelenskyy accused the United States of being “afraid” to name-check Russia in its comment on the attack.
“Unfortunately, the reaction of the American Embassy is unpleasantly surprising: such a strong country, such a strong people – and such a weak reaction,” he wrote on X.
“They are even afraid to say the word “Russian” when talking about the missile that killed children.”
America’s ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink had written on X: “Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in Kryvyi Rih.
“More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including 6 children. This is why the war must end.”
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Strike on Zelenskyy’s home city
President Zelenskyy went on in his post to say: “Yes, the war must end. But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade.
“We must not be afraid to put pressure on the only one who continues this war and ignores all the world’s proposals to end it. We must put pressure on Russia, which chooses to kill children instead of a ceasefire.”
Grandmother ‘burned to death in her home’
Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city’s defense council, said the missile attack, followed by a drone attack, had killed 19 people, including nine children.
“The Iskander-M missile strike with cluster munitions at the children’s playground in the residential area, to make the shrapnel fly further apart, killed 18 people.
“One grandmother was burnt to death in her house after Shahed’s direct hit.”
Russia’s defence ministry said it had struck a military gathering in a restaurant – an assertion rebutted by the Ukrainian military as misinformation.
“The missile hit right on the street – around ordinary houses, a playground, shops, a restaurant,” President Zelenskyy wrote.
Mr Zelenskyy also detailed the child victims of the attack including “Konstantin, who will be 16 forever” and “Arina, who will also be 7 forever”.
The UK’s chief of the defence staff Sir Tony Radakin said he had met the Ukrainian leader on Friday, along with French armed forces leader General Thierry Burkhard.
“Britain and France are coming together & Europe is stepping up in a way that is real & substantial, with 200 planners from 30 nations working to strengthen Ukraine’s long term security,” Sir Tony wrote.
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