Sunak ready to sacrifice Brexit gains for Ulster deal

Backbench anger as No 10 seems ready to hitch UK to Brussels trade rules if that can revive NI Assembly

RISHI SUNAK has offered to sacrifice some of Britain’s Brexit freedoms in a bid to re-establish devolved government in Northern Ireland.

The Prime Minister has pledged to introduce a requirement that all new laws are screened to ensure they will not create extra trade barriers in the Irish Sea.

Downing Street hopes the promise will persuade the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to end its two-year boycott of Stormont that has paralysed Northern Irish politics.

However, the offer angered Tory MPS, who warned that introducing such a policy would make it almost impossible for Great Britain to diverge from EU rules.

Eurosceptic sources said the plan would mean any laws designed to take advantage of Brexit freedoms risked being blocked by Whitehall officials.

All legislation would have to be accompanied by a ministerial statement confirming it did not have a “significant adverse effect” on internal UK trade.

The planned system would mirror the one used to screen new Bills for their compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Northern Ireland effectively remained in the European single market when the rest of the UK left the bloc, to prevent the need for a hard border with the Republic of Ireland. As a result, goods travelling from Great Britain to Ulster have to undergo customs checks to make sure they are not destined for Ireland, an EU member. If Britain diverges from EU rules, the checks needed on British goods crossing the border to Northern Ireland could grow, which critics say will harm trade.

It raises the prospect that new laws which mean that Britain might diverge from Brussels could be blocked.

Unionists angered by current arrangements, which they say has harmed the Northern Irish economy and made its people “second-class” UK citizens. The DUP walked out of the Belfast assembly in February 2022 in protest at the Irish Sea Border and has refused to return until the checks are scrapped.

Mr Sunak renegotiated the Brexit deal last year and replaced it with the Windsor Framework, which reduced – but did not eliminate – customs red tape.

Unionists have pushed the Prime Minister to go further but doing so would anger the EU and put the wider Brexit trade deal in peril. His latest offer would give the DUP an effective guarantee that the UK would not pass laws that create more trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

However, Tory MPS warned it would come at the expense of tying Britain to European standards and putting paid to capitalising on Brexit freedoms.

Sir Jacob Rees-mogg, the former business secretary, said: “This means we will not diverge at all and we will have ended up with Theresa May’s Chequers deal in all but name.

“I voted against the Windsor Frame- work because it subordinates part of the UK to the EU. This mechanism would restore part of the EU hegemony over us.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader, said: “The Windsor framework is the back door to the EU holding on to the UK and stopping us diverging. It should be replaced.”

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, has been locked in talks with the Government for months over a deal to return to power-sharing in Stormont. Ministers have offered legislation guaranteeing Northern Ireland’s place in the UK, a new East-west council on internal trade ties and £3.3 billion of funding.

‘This means we will not diverge and we will have ended up with Theresa May’s Chequers deal ...’