Britain and EU have understanding on Northern Ireland issues but deal ‘by no means done’, Rishi Sunak says
Britain and the EU have an understanding on what needs to be done to resolve issues surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol but a deal is “by no means done”, Rishi Sunak has said.
Speaking during a question and answer session after his speech at the Munich Security Conference, the prime minister said Britain wanted to have a positive relationship with the bloc.
But he said that there were “real issues that need resolving”.
“The way that the protocol has been implemented, it’s causing very real challenges for families, for people, for businesses on the ground,” he said.
“We’re engaging in those conversations with the European Union all the time and we have been for a while, but what I’d say is there is still work to do.
“There are still challenges to work through. We have not resolved all these issues.
“No, there isn’t a deal that has been done, there is an understanding of what needs to be done.”
Mr Sunak added that “we’re working through (the issues) hard and we will work through them intensely with the EU, but we are by no means done”.
It comes after Sinn Fein’s leader Mary Lou McDonald said “significant progress” had been made to resolve the row over the Northern Ireland Protocol and a deal is “very much game on”.
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Hope of NI Brexit breakthrough
Speaking after discussions with Mr Sunak, who was in Northern Ireland on Friday to hold talks with political leaders, she told reporters: “We have always believed that a deal on the protocol was possible and we’ve always known it was necessary.
“It is clear that significant progress has been made and we are very heartened by that. We now want to see a speedy concluding of matters.
Read more:
Prime minister visits Belfast for talks on Northern Ireland Protocol
Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen promise to ‘work together’ on Northern Ireland
“The bottom line is that we have to ensure that any deal provides for ongoing access to the European single market, no hardening of the border on the island of Ireland and a protection of the Good Friday Agreement in all of its parts.
“It seems to us that it’s very much game on.”
Mary Lou McDonald with Michelle O’Neill
She said if these terms are reached it is then “a matter for everyone, for each of the political parties to step up, get back to work and deliver for people here in the north of Ireland”.
This is likely aimed at the DUP and other unionists, who have collapsed the Stormont assembly in protest over the protocol.
Mr Sunak travelled to Belfast, along with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, to meet Stormont leaders amid mounting speculation a deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements could be days away.
After emerging from talks with Mr Sunak, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said while “progress has been made” on the Northern Ireland Protocol, there is “still some work required”.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson
He warned that “if and when a final agreement is reached, we will want to carefully consider the detail of that agreement and decide if the agreement does, in fact meet our seven tests”.
These “seven tests” were set out by the party in 2021 and include no new checks of any sort on goods being traded between GB and NI.
Asked if he will compromise on these tests for a deal to pass muster, Sir Jeffrey said it “is not a question of compromising”, but rather the “UK government honouring the commitments they’ve made”.
Rishi Sunak may not want to look like he is jumping the gun over new deal
Rishi Sunak very much downplaying reports that there could be a deal revealed as soon as Monday.
I guess the question is, whether that is an indication of genuine delays and problems and that there may not be something coming in the imminent future, or whether this is more strategy.
I think when you look at some of the choreography of the last few days, discussions going on in Belfast, the foreign secretary in Brussels yesterday, and meetings with EU leaders in Munich, it feels like there is something more substantial that is moving there.
So what may be going on, quite frankly, is an attempt not to sound too presumptuous in terms of revealing a deal without the DUP’s permission. Because of course, it is the DUP, unionist politicians in Northern Ireland, that really need to approve of this deal.
Because if they don’t, they will refuse to go back into power-sharing in Belfast and it means the democratic institutions, the executive, and the assembly there, won’t sit again.
So Rishi Sunak is trying to keep multiple audiences happy here, and that is potentially why he doesn’t want to sound too presumptuous or looking like he is jumping the gun in announcing any potential deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The mechanism has left Northern Ireland without a devolved power-sharing executive since early last year.
The protocol has overshadowed Northern Irish politics since it was agreed upon as part of the Brexit deal in a bid to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Members of the unionist community are unhappy with the difficulties it creates for trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, with the DUP refusing to cooperate with forming a devolved Executive in Stormont until the issues are resolved.
What is the Northern Ireland Protocol and why does it matter?
The UK government says the protocol is not working and wants to override it with new legislation if the EU does not agree to changes – a move Brussels has warned is “illegal and unrealistic”.
However, tensions have cooled in recent months, with both sides pledging to work together to find a way forward.
Last month, the EU and the UK said there was a “new basis” for resolving the Northern Ireland Protocol row after an agreement was reached in sharing trade data.
A man has been charged with four counts of attempted murder after a car collided with a group of people in London’s West End on Christmas Day.
Anthony Gilheaney, 30, will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday and has also been charged with causing serious injury by driving whilst disqualified, driving a motor vehicle dangerously and possession of a bladed article in a public place, the Metropolitan Police said.
Forensic investigators collect evidence at the scene on Christmas Day. Pic: PA
Items of clothing and blood are seen on the pavement. Pic: PA
Four people were taken to hospital after the incident, with one in a life-threatening condition.
Metropolitan Police officers were called to reports of a crash and a car driving on the wrong side of the road at 12.45am.
The incident occurred outside the Sondheim Theatre, which is the London home of the musical Les Miserables.
Shaftesbury Avenue is at the heart of London‘s West End and the city’s theatre district.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said the suspect was arrested within minutes of the incident “in the early hours of Christmas Day”.
“Since then, investigators have worked tirelessly to build the case and have today charged Anthony Gilheaney with four counts of attempted murder.
“Our thoughts now are with the victims, one of which remains in critical condition in hospital.”
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UK
Special educational needs children ‘segregated and left to struggle in wrong schools to save money’
Children with special educational needs are being “segregated” and left to struggle in the wrong schools because councils are trying to “save on costs”, parents have told Sky News.
Maire Leigh Wilson, whose four-year-old son has Down’s syndrome, says she “shudders to think” where he would be now had she not been in a “constant battle” with her council.
“I think he would probably just be at the back of a classroom, running around with no support and no ability to sign or communicate,” she said.
Mrs Leigh Wilson wanted her son Aidan to go to a mainstream school with additional specialist support, but her council, who decide what is known as a child’s Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP), wanted him to attend a special school.
The number of EHCPs being appealed by parents has risen “massively”, according to education barrister Alice De Coverley.
She said councils are struggling to meet the volume of demand with “stretched budgets”, and parents are also more aware of their ability to appeal.
Mrs De Coverley said more than 90% of tribunals are won by parents, in part because councils do not have the resources to fight their cases.
She said, in her experience, parents of children with special educational needs will put “anything on the line, their homes, their jobs”.
On whether she thinks the system is rigged against parents, Mrs De Coverley said: “I’m not sure it’s meant to be. But I think that parents are certainly finding it very tough.”
She added the number of “unlawful decisions” being made by local authorities means parents who can afford it are being “utterly burnt out” by legal challenges.
Read more:
Three in four parents of SEND children forced to give up work or cut hours
Maire Leigh Wilson with her son, Aiden, four
Mrs Leigh Wilson’s case was resolved before making it to court.
Her council, Hounslow in southwest London, said they complete more than four in five new EHCPs within the statutory 20-week timescale, twice the national average.
Hounslow Council said they “put families at the heart of decision-making” and young people in the area with special educational needs and disabilities achieve, on average, above their peers nationally.
They admitted there are areas of their offer “that need to be further improved” and they are “working closely with families as a partnership”.
“We have a clear and credible plan to achieve this, and we can see over the last 18 months where we have focused our improvement work, the real benefits of an improved experience for children, young people, and their families,” a Hounslow Council spokesman said.
He added the council had seen the number of EHCPs double in the last decade and they “share parents’ frustrations amid rising levels of national demand, and what’s widely acknowledged as a broken SEND system”.
Emma Dunville wanted her son, Albie, to go to a special school but the council took too long to assess him
Emma Dunville, a friend of Mrs Leigh Wilson whose son also has Down’s syndrome, describes her experience trying to get the right education provision for her child as “exhausting mentally and physically”.
She said: “For the rest of his life we’ll be battling, battling, battling, everything is stacked up against you.”
Unlike Mrs Leigh Wilson, Mrs Dunville wanted her son Albie to go to a special school, but she had to wait more than a year for an assessment with an education psychologist to contribute to the council’s decision, which meant she missed the deadline for an EHCP.
“The people making these decisions just don’t see that all children with Down’s syndrome are totally different and can’t be seen as the same.”
The guidelines are that if there are not enough local authority-employed education psychologists they should seek a private assessment, but her local authority did not do that.
Mrs Dunville said her son has been “segregated” in a mainstream school, where they are “trying their best” but “it’s just not the right setting”.
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