Northern Ireland Protocol: Rishi Sunak to meet European Commission president tomorrow as UK on ‘cusp’ of post-Brexit deal

Rishi Sunak will meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday to solve a “range of complex challenges” around the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The prime minister and president released a joint statement saying they would meet in the UK to discuss the Brexit treaty.

It comes after Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told Sky News that Britain is “on the cusp of a deal” to resolve the long-running dispute.

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In the joint statement issued by Downing Street, the prime minister and president “agreed to continue their work in person towards shared, practical solutions for the range of complex challenges around the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland.

“President von der Leyen will therefore meet with the prime minister in the UK tomorrow.”

Ms von der Leyen had been due to travel to the UK on Saturday to hold talks with Mr Sunak and meet the King at Windsor Castle, but the plans were scrapped.

Mr Sunak has said his government was “giving it everything” to strike a deal over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

“There’s unfinished business on Brexit and I want to get the job done,” the prime minister told The Sunday Times, adding that he would work all weekend to nail down revised terms.

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Months negotiating changes to contentious treaty

The government and the European Union have spent months negotiating changes to the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol, the mechanism preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland.

It was agreed as part of former prime minister Boris Johnson’s “oven-ready” Brexit deal in order to preserve peace in the region – but unionists have been 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.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has refused to form an executive in Stormont unless the protocol is scrapped, leaving the assembly unable to function since early last year.

The UK government also previously said the protocol was not working and threatened to rip it up without the permission of the EU, a move branded by Brussels as “illegal and unrealistic”.

However, there has been a cooling of tensions under Mr Sunak’s administration, with both sides engaging in intense talks to resolve the impasse.

The DUP’s seven tests

Delivering the deal will avoid a trade war with the EU and be seen as a huge accomplishment for the prime minister, but unionist parties will have to be on board to restore powersharing.

The DUP has set out seven tests it wants any new deal to pass, including no checks on goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

There is also anger about the so-called called “democratic deficit” caused by NI still being subject to some EU rules so that goods can move freely into the Republic of Ireland – which the DUP and many Tory MPs see as an erosion of the UK’s sovereignty and incompatible with the aims of Brexit.

Ministers have been hoping for a deal before the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which was signed on 10 April 1998 and brought peace to Northern Ireland. Power-sharing was a fundamental principle.

Labour offers to support PM

Mr Sunak has previously indicated MPs will get a vote on the final deal, though his spokesman later played this down.

Conservative MPs have been told they must be in Westminster tomorrow, suggesting an agreement could be imminent.

Labour has offered to support the prime minister if he comes up against a Tory rebellion, saying it is in the “national interest” to resolve the issues.