DUP threatens to vote against Sunak’s Brexit deal with EU

Eurosceptic Tories also express displeasure at ‘nonsensical’ details in Windsor Framework

THE DUP is preparing to vote against Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal with the EU in Wednesday’s crunch House of Commons vote, The Sunday Telegraph understands.

The decision by the Unionist party is likely to embolden Tory Eurosceptics who are also gearing up to oppose the Prime Minister’s deal.

MPs will debate the Stormont Brake, a key measure in the Windsor Framework which Mr Sunak agreed with the EU to improve the functioning of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Under the brake, members of the Northern Ireland Assembly would be able to block EU regulations, but only in specific circumstances and with the EU able to take remedial action in response.

The Government has said the vote will be interpreted as the defining verdict on the overall agreement.

Ministers had harboured hopes that the DUP would not actively oppose it, paving the way for the party to return to the Stormont Assembly, which it has been boycotting for more than a year in protest at the protocol.

However, a senior DUP source said: “I would fully expect that we will be voting against that statutory instrument.”

The source said there were “fundamental problems still outstanding” with the Windsor Framework, pointing to comments from Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP’s leader, who last week said there were “key areas of concern” requiring “further clarification, reworking and change”.

The source also criticised Mr Sunak’s choice of parliamentary tactics.

They said: “You can’t take one part of [the Windsor Agreement] and leave aside all the rest, especially at the same time as they’re briefing out that this would be taken as a signal on the overall agreement, which of course it would be by the Government.

“This vote has been brought forward without the necessary information and texts and details being provided. It’s just an outrageous attempt to try to force this through without proper scrutiny or debate or vote.”

Disquiet at the perceived refusal to share information is shared by the European Research Group of Tory MPs.

The Eurosceptic group is yet to announce its position on the Windsor Framework, but it is expected that a number of its members will vote against the Government or abstain.

Mr Sunak has insisted that the amount of EU law applicable to Northern Ireland has been reduced to 3 per cent, scrapping 1,700 pages of law. But several members of the ERG have tabled parliamentary questions about

‘It’s an outrageous attempt to try to force this through without proper scrutiny or debate or vote’

which laws make up the 3 per cent and say they have not received satisfactory responses.

“We want a list of the laws that remain and a full list of the 1,700 pages of law that has been swept away,” said one MP. “The only answers we have had have been nonsensical.”

Downing Street has been scrambling to shore up DUP support ahead of Wednesday’s vote. Unionists are understood to be anxious that even in the event the brake was triggered, the UK Government could veto it or the EU could prevent it from being used.

No10 officials have insisted that no vote would be needed in the Northern Ireland Assembly to trigger the brake which can be enacted with the support of 30 Unionists from two parties.

They have also said it would be unlawful for the UK Government to veto the brake and that while the EU can ask for more information, it cannot stop the brake from being used.