UK and EU officials will sign off on a new Brexit deal in London today, despite ongoing opposition from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
The Windsor Framework – designed to address problems with the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol – was agreed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last month.
The plan was symbolically approved in the Commons earlier this week by a large margin after a vote on one of its elements – the Stormont brake – as well as getting the nod from the Council of the EU.
The Stormont brake is a mechanism that aims to allow assembly members to flag their concerns about changes to or introductions of new EU legislation that will affect the region, giving the UK government the option to veto them.
The DUP and some prominent Tory Brexiteers – including Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – voted against the deal, saying they still had concerns about EU law taking precedence in Northern Ireland.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson – whose party has refused to form an executive in Northern Ireland until the protocol, negotiated by Mr Johnson, was ditched – has said the new policy is unlikely to lead his party back into a power-sharing agreement in Stormont.
However, in a release ahead of the meeting, the government said the UK and EU had “fundamentally changed the old protocol, fixing the practical problems and securing a new way forward for a prosperous, stable future for Northern Ireland”.
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Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the framework would deliver on the government’s commitment “to provide stability and certainty” for the region.
“The framework is the best deal for Northern Ireland, safeguarding its place in the Union and protecting the Belfast [Good Friday] Agreement,” he added.
Mr Cleverly will give formal approval to the framework today alongside the European Commission’s Maros Sefcovic.