Rishi Sunak‘s new deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland has cleared its first Commons test despite the threat of a Tory-DUP rebellion led by Boris Johnson.
MPs voted 515 to 29 – a majority of 486 – in favour of regulations to implement the Stormont brake section of the Windsor Framework, which would allow a minority of politicians at the Northern Ireland Assembly to flag concerns about new EU laws there.
Earlier on Wednesday, ex-prime minister Boris Johnson announced he would be joining the DUP in voting against the government, as he described Mr Sunak’s deal as “unacceptable”.
More than a dozen hardline European Research Group members were among the 22 Tories to vote against the deal, including former Tory leaders Liz Truss and Iain Duncan Smith. But they failed to get the level of opposition they might have hoped for, meaning the government did not have to rely on Labour votes.
Six DUP MPs also voted against, while two DUP MPs acted as tellers for the “noes”. Independent MP Andrew Bridgen also voted against, making 29 in total.
The 22 Tory MPs who rebelled are:
- Adam Afriyie
- Jake Berry
- Peter Bone
- Bill Cash
- Christopher Chope
- Simon Clarke
- Richard Drax
- James Duddridge
- Iain Duncan Smith
- Mark Francois
- Jonathan Gullis
- Adam Holloway
- Andrea Jenkyns
- Boris Johnson
- David Jones
- Danny Kruger
- Craig Mackinlay
- Matthew Offord
- Priti Patel
- John Redwood
- Jacob Rees-Mogg
- Liz Truss
- Gregory Campbell
- Jeffrey Donaldson
- Carla Lockhart
- Gavin Robinson
- Jim Shannon
- Sammy Wilson
- Andrew Bridgen