Rishi ‘on cusp’ of Northern Ireland post-Brexit deal with EU boss to fly to UK

The prime minister will hold face-to-face talks with the European Commission president, as he hopes to seal the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland.

Ursula von der Leyen will travel to the UK on Monday to discuss the ‘range of complex challenges’ around the treaty.

It comes amid speculation that a deal could be announced imminently – with Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab saying Britain is on the ‘cusp’ of striking the long-awaited agreement.

But Mr Sunak faces large hurdles, as he’s warned not to try to ‘bounce’ backbenchers into backing a new Brexit deal without the support of the Democratic Unionist Party.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has issued seven tests that the new pact will have to meet in order to win the party’s backing.

These include addressing what he has named the ‘democratic deficit’ of Northern Ireland being subject to EU rules while not having a say on them.

Meanwhile, Britain’s leader is likely to face anger within his party if he does not give Parliament a vote on what he comes back with.

A joint statement issued tonight said: ‘Today, president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, 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.

‘President von der Leyen will therefore meet with the Prime Minister in the UK tomorrow.’

Ms von der Leyen had been due to travel to Britain on Saturday to hold talks with Mr Sunak, as well as meet King Charles at Windsor Castle, but the plans were scrapped.

Had Saturday led to a breakthrough, Downing Street had reportedly been keen to brand the Prime Minister’s deal the ‘Windsor Agreement’.

The commission’s online calendar states that Ms von der Leyen’s meeting with Mr Sunak on Monday will take place in Windsor – suggesting No 10 plans to stick with the original location it had pencilled in for her weekend trip.

Speaking to The Sunday Times on Saturday, Mr Sunak said he planned to work all weekend to nail down revised terms as he looks to keep hardline Conservative Brexiteers and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) happy.

He told the newspaper he was ‘giving it everything we’ve got’ to finalise a fix for the protocol, a Brexit treaty negotiated by former prime minister Boris Johnson back in 2020.

The protocol was designed to prevent a hard border with Ireland after Brexit, with Northern Ireland continuing to follow EU rules on goods to prevent checks being needed when crossing into the Republic.

But the trade barriers between Northern Ireland and Great Britain created by the treaty has created Unionist tension, with Mr Sunak admitting that it had ‘unbalanced’ the Good Friday Agreement that helped end the Troubles bloodshed in the province.

Mr Raab, who is also the Justice Secretary, appeared to set out some of what has been agreed so far in the London-Brussels negotiations during interviews with broadcasters on Sunday.

The Leave campaigner said it was ‘right that there is a Northern Irish democratic check on’ new rules the EU makes that apply to Belfast – a hint that Mr Sunak has looked to address the DUP’s concern over the democratic deficit.

He also indicated that reports of red and green lanes to ease customs checks in Northern Ireland were correct.

Several reports have suggested trusted traders will be able to send goods from Great Britain into Northern Ireland without checks, while goods destined for Ireland and the EU’s single market will go through red inspection lanes.

Mr Raab said the cut to trade red tape would lead to a ‘substantial scaling back’ of the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), but he refused to rule out it having a say on future legal cases.

The ability of European judges to rule on disputes involving EU laws in Northern Ireland is a particular bugbear for Tory Eurosceptics.

Mark Francois, chairman of the European Research Group (ERG) made up of anti-EU Tory MPs, told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that ‘less of a role’ for the Luxembourg court was ‘not enough’ of a concession.

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