Rishi Sunak will hold a Cabinet meeting today (Tuesday) amid growing anticipation that the UK and the EU could be on the verge of agreeing a deal on Northern Ireland Protocol. But the Prime Minister is facing up to a potential battle with members of his own party as he seeks to satisfy the demands of both Conservative MPs and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) over any agreement.
The European Research Group (ERG), a band of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, are expected to meet for talks later on Tuesday even as Downing Street insisted that a final deal had not yet been struck. As pressure builds on the Prime Minister, who is also facing calls to allow MPs a vote on any final deal, the Times newspaper reported that some ministers could be prepared to resign if Mr Sunak’s solution to the protocol risks the place of Northern Ireland within the UK.
A No 10 source told PA news agency that central to Mr Sunak’s focus was safeguarding Northern Ireland’s place in the Union. There are hopes that a fresh settlement on post-Brexit arrangements in Northern Ireland will be able to secure the return of powersharing at the Stormont Assembly, after the DUP walked out in protest at the protocol last February.
