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LONDON — Conservative MPs have been ordered to attend the House of Commons Monday amid mounting expectation Rishi Sunak will unveil a deal with the European Union on the contentious Northern Ireland protocol within days.
Tory MPs have been placed on a three-line whip — an instruction from party enforcers that they must take part in proceedings — for Monday, while Cabinet ministers are expecting a call over the weekend. Sunak spoke to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Friday amid expectation in Westminster that a Brexit deal could be announced to Cabinet ministers over the weekend and then to the public early next week.
Sunak — who hinted this week that the British parliament will be given a say on any agreement — must sell a deal to skeptical Brexiteers in his own party as well as Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which has been demanding major changes to the post-Brexit trading setup agreed for the U.K. region.
The DUP is fiercely opposed to the protocol, and views the introduction of checks on trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland as driving a wedge between the region and the rest of the U.K.
It strongly rejects the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in governing disputes under the deal, and is boycotting the power-sharing assembly in Northern Ireland in opposition to the rules. This week it demanded that Sunak secure changes to the legal text underpinning the agreement between the U.K. and the EU.
Brussels is meanwhile “very worried” by U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly’s remarks Friday suggesting the government will not sign off on a deal without the backing of the DUP, a senior EU diplomat, granted anonymity to speak freely, said.
Cleverly told Times Radio he hoped the DUP “would recognize that we’ve addressed their concerns and until we have addressed those concerns we’re not going to sign off on the deal.”
But the diplomat said: “The government can’t allow the DUP to effectively have a right to veto a deal … The government should emancipate themselves from the DUP and take its own decision.”
Cristina Gallardo and Dan Bloom contributed reporting.
