Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is braced for a possible Tory backbench rebellion as MPs vote on a key plank of his new deal with Brussels over post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland.
With Labour backing the Windsor Framework agreement signed last month, the Government should win the Commons division comfortably, despite criticism from some hardline Tory Brexiteers. Yesterday, the European Research Group (ERG) said the so-called Stormont brake, intended to provide a veto on the imposition of new EU regulations in Northern Ireland, was “practically useless”.
Following an analysis of the framework by its “star chamber” of lawyers, it said that it offered only “limited legal changes” and that EU law would remain supreme in Northern Ireland. ERG chairman Mark Francois, however, declined to say what members would do in the vote ahead of a further meeting of the group today (Wednesday March 22).
