Solving the Brexit jigsaw
Northern Ireland is the last piece to be fitted. The PM must secure that prize. Emily Hohler reports
Barely four months into the job, prime minister Rishi Sunak faces a “defining moment of his premiership”, says the Financial Times: resolving the dispute over post-Brexit trading rules with Northern Ireland. “Ending the animosity in UK-EU relations could bring real economic and political benefits,” but Sunak needs to be prepared to “face down Brexit purists and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).” If hardline Tory MPs oppose his deal, Sunak should be prepared to “push through a vote with Labour support”. The “political prize” is worth it.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is the “remaining piece of the Brexit jigsaw that Boris Johnson left unfinished”, says Philip Johnston in The Telegraph. Post-Brexit, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic “became a land frontier” between the UK and the EU. It is widely agreed that this should not become a “hard” border to avoid jeopardising peace and the Good Friday Agreement. The solution was to leave Northern Ireland effectively in the single market for goods, but unionists argued that this leaves the province “semidetached from the UK” and the DUP walked out of the government in protest, leaving the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive suspended.
To avoid a hard border, the proposed deal would create a “green lane” for goods whose final destination is Northern Ireland and a “red lane” for goods destined for Ireland and the EU, but still leaves a final arbiter’s role for the European Court of Justice in any dispute, although the wording of the agreement may play down its role, says The Sunday Times. However, hardline unionists say this still leaves a “democratic deficit” and it is a “red flag” to Tory eurosceptics as the issue goes to the heart of who governs.
Such is the alarm in Downing Street at criticism of the deal that Sunak sat down earlier this week with more than a dozen of his “harshest critics” in the Tory party to try and win them round, says Nick Gutteridge in The Telegraph. Crucially, he has the backing of Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, and James Cleverly, the foreign secretary. Both campaigned for Brexit, are former members of the European Research Group and have significant sway over pro-Brexit MPs.
Sunak should hold his nerve
Purists may see the deal as “infringing the principle of a UK with no internal borders”, but no deal will be perfect for all parties and “it is hard to see what the alternative could be”, says The Sunday Times. It is “now or never” for Sunak, his party and the DUP. Boris Johnson – who signed off on the “flawed agreement” and now has the “brass neck” to be “manoeuvring” behind the scenes – should be ignored. As for the DUP, it has “already been usurped by Sinn Fein as the province’s largest political party, and blocking the return of the Northern Ireland assembly is as much about that as it is about principled objections to the protocol”. Additionally, notes the Financial Times, while the DUP may be the largest unionist party, it represents “only a part of unionist opinion” and should not be allowed to hold Northern Ireland – which is in dire need of a fully functioning government – hostage.
Quite, says The Times. As DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson knows, the “remote prospect of judges in Strasbourg adjudicating on the contents of a lorry bound from Belfast to Cork” is not a good enough reason to deny Northern Ireland a government. “Grandstanding opposition may spare him the ire of East Belfast’s hard men, but cannot save Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.” As the “endgame” approaches, Sunak should hold his nerve, Johnson should hold his tongue and Donaldson and the DUP should “wise up”.