Rishi Sunak threatens to push through Brexit deal on Northern Ireland without DUP

Rishi Sunak has suggested the UK government will press ahead with his new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland even if it is rejected by the Democratic Unionist party, saying it was not about “any one political party”.

The UK prime minister met business leaders and politicians in Belfast on Tuesday to sell the agreement with the EU, arguing it would unlock fresh investment in the region and turn Northern Ireland into “the world’s most exciting economic zone”.

Sunak unveiled the Windsor framework with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Monday, with both sides hailing it as a “new chapter” after years of fraught relations.

The deal has won cross-party support at Westminster and has been hailed by US president Joe Biden and French president Emmanuel Macron as a significant step forward.

To Sunak’s relief there has been no outright condemnation of the deal from Tory Eurosceptic MPs, who have set up a panel of lawyers to examine the text. Boris Johnson, the former prime minister who negotiated the previous agreement the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, has remained silent on the issue.

Peter Bone, a veteran Eurosceptic, said after a meeting of the Conservative party’s 1922 committee of backbenchers on Tuesday that Sunak had been “very good and very impressive”.

The new deal eliminates many checks for goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, ranging from sausages and medicines to oak trees; allows VAT cuts in the region for products such as beer; and sets out provisions for local legislators to object to new EU rules.

The agreement also contains provisions for an emergency “Stormont brake”, allowing the UK — at the request of 30 members from at least two parties in the Northern Ireland assembly — to block updates to EU goods regulations in exceptional circumstances.

The Democratic Unionists, Northern Ireland’s main pro-UK party, welcomed progress on the region’s trading arrangements but party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson on Tuesday said: “We continue to have some concerns”. Some unionists are objecting to the continued sway of EU law and the European Court of Justice over Northern Ireland.

The DUP has boycotted the region’s Stormont assembly since May in protest at the Northern Ireland protocol, which introduced checks on trade with Great Britain to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.

But when asked whether the Windsor framework would go ahead without the support of the party, Sunak replied: “This is not necessarily about me or any one political party.

“This is about what is best for the people and communities and businesses of Northern Ireland and this agreement will make a hugely positive difference to them.”

Downing Street said it was willing to talk to Northern Irish parties to explain aspects of the agreement, but believed Sunak had “secured the right deal for all parties” in the region.

The deal was reached under provisions set out by the protocol for the amendment of its rules, and does not technically require ratification — although Sunak has said the House of Commons will have a vote “at the appropriate time”.

The DUP is scrutinising the agreement and powerful party chief executive Timothy Johnston put members on a “talk to no one order” after two of its MPs gave it the thumbs-down on Monday night, according to one unionist familiar with DUP thinking.

However, Peter Robinson, a former DUP first minister, warned in a social media post that “serious thought must be given as to whether a better deal could be attained in the future if we do not react positively to this one”.

The DUP should also consider whether rejecting it would “place unionism and Northern Ireland on more perilous ground”, he added.

Sunak held out the prospect of a big increase in investment in Northern Ireland under the deal. “I’ve spent a lot of time engaging with business groups and what they say is if we get this resolved in the way that we have, that will unlock an enormous investment,” he said.

“With the Stormont brake . . . the assembly and people of Northern Ireland are in control,” Sunak said.

He added that his deal would end “any sense of a border in the Irish Sea”.