- Parliament approves the Stormont brake
- DUP, some Brexit supporters vote against
- The government is urging lawmakers to move on
LONDON (Portal) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday won Parliament’s support for a key element of a revised post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland, despite opposition from the province’s main labor party and some of its lawmakers.
Sunak has sought to end years of rows over Brexit by revisiting one of the most difficult parts of the negotiations – to ensure smooth trade with Northern Ireland without creating a hard border with Britain or EU member Ireland.
He agreed with the EU to introduce the “Stormont brake,” which aims to give Northern Ireland more control over whether to accept new EU laws as part of the so-called Windsor framework of measures.
But in Wednesday’s vote in the House of Commons, those he most wanted to win over were the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (DUP), some conservative Eurosceptics in the European Research Group (ERG) and his two predecessors, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – rebelled by voting against the brake.
Despite opposition, Sunak won the vote 515-29 and managed to contain the scale of the rebellion, but with a significant number of Conservatives abstaining. The opposition parties voted for the brake.
Sunak’s ministers welcomed the vote.
“I welcome Parliament’s vote today in support of the Windsor framework,” UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris said on Twitter.
“This measure is at the heart of the Windsor framework, which offers the best deal for Northern Ireland, secures its place in the Union and addresses the democratic deficit.”
The brake will allow Britain to prevent new EU laws applying to goods in Northern Ireland if requested by a third of lawmakers in the province’s decentralized legislature.
The ERG described the measure as “practically useless” and the DUP complained that it was not applicable to current EU law.
“BRAKE WITHOUT BRAKE PADS”
The new deal was brokered by Sunak, who has been in office since October after Johnson’s previous government threatened to pull out of the original deal with the EU.
A hard border risked jeopardizing the Good Friday Agreement that largely ended three decades of armed conflict in Northern Ireland involving militants who wanted a united Ireland, “loyalists” who wanted to remain part of the UK and British security forces.
The United States has said any threat to the deal could affect the possibility of US-British trade.
Sunak hailed the conclusion of the deal last month as a “decisive breakthrough” but alienating the DUP has left him unable to restore power-sharing government to Northern Ireland.
Contrary to opinion polls showing 45% of voters in the province support the framework, versus 17% against, the DUP has said the brake does little to allay its concerns about post-Brexit trade deals, saying it does did not delve into the basics of the subject – the enforcement of EU law.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson told Parliament his party could not return to the power-sharing government of Northern Ireland “at this stage”.
Earlier, ERG chairman Mark Francois told reporters the group had recommended its members vote against the government to show their dissatisfaction with what he called an “oversold” agreement that would introduce a “brake without pads.” may be.
Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, Kylie MacLellan, William James and Sarah Young, additional reporting by Amanda Ferguson in Belfast, editing by William Maclean, Angus MacSwan and Jonathan Oatis
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