Northern Ireland set for Brexit deal as Rishi Sunak, EC chief Ursula von der Leyen meet

New Northern Ireland deal looks to remove difficulties of movement of goods in and out of the rest of the UK which meant trade border in the Irish Sea.

Rishi Sunak will meet EC President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday. Picture: AFP.

A new deal for Northern Ireland, which has borne the brunt of a Brexit fudge for seven years, could be reached on Monday night, local time, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen due to meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for “final talks”.

The planned meeting follows months of intensive negotiations over the Northern Ireland protocol, which was signed between London and Brussels as part of the UK’s divorce from the EU.

The protocol has kept Northern Ireland in the European single market, to the anger of the province’s Democratic Unionist Party. Any revision of the protocol will have to reassure not just the DUP but sections of Mr Sunak’s Conservative Party who fear a fraying of bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

The two leaders were expected “to meet late lunchtime on Monday for final talks” in Berkshire, said a statement released by Mr Sunak’s Downing Street office late on Sunday, local time.

The protocol effectively imposed a trade border down the Irish Sea. The new deal appears to have come at the cost of cementing the European Court of Justice as the main arbitrator for any disputes. This failure to secure full judicial autonomy will enrage the Tory right as well as the DUP.

A joint EU-Downing Street readout of a phone call between Mr Sunak and Ms von der Leyen said the two “agreed to continue their work in person towards shared, practical solutions for the range of complex challenges around the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland”.

Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab had said earlier on Sunday, local time, that Britain was “on the cusp” of securing new Brexit terms with the EU.

There were suggestions that Mr Sunak would seek to dodge a clash from within his party by not holding a parliamentary vote on the fresh deal, leaving the Northern Ireland assembly in Belfast to scrutinise the EU laws.

Brexiteers, including European Research Group chair Mark Francois, are concerned the House of Commons may not get a vote on the changes. “For the government to try to bludgeon this through the Commons without a vote would be incredibly unwise,” Mr Francois said, warning that continuing to have European Court jurisdiction in any part of Britain was unacceptable.

“Less of a role is not enough. Just putting a couple of intermediate phases in but in a situation where you still end up with the European Court of Justice is effectively sophistry. I mean, we’re not stupid,” he said.

“What we want is a situation where EU law is expunged from Northern Ireland so it is treated on the same basis as England, Scotland and Wales.”

Northern Ireland is subject to EU laws and time-consuming checks for goods travelling to and from the country, including across the border into the Irish Republic, an EU member, but under the new deal, there would be two “lanes” for trucks.

Those goods coming from the rest of Britain and destined for Northern Ireland won’t face checks, but those headed for the Irish Republic would go into a red lane for further scrutiny.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar welcomed news of the meeting. “We should acknowledge the level of engagement between the UK gov, the European Commission and the NI parties in recent months,” he tweeted.

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government since February last year because of a walkout by the DUP.

The party had been due to share power with Sinn Fein, which became the biggest party in the assembly after elections last May. But the DUP collapsed the power-sharing executive because of its opposition to the Brexit protocol. The DUP has always said it wants the protocol overhauled or scrapped entirely, arguing it casts Northern Ireland adrift from the rest of the UK and makes a united Ireland more likely.

The deal was struck in a bid to preserve the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. During the three-decade “Troubles” in Northern Ireland, border infrastructure on the island and the associated ­British Army presence became a hated symbol for nationalists who want to reunify the island.