UK’s Sunak ‘over the moon’ with NI deal with EU

STORY: Sunak is trying to secure the backing of all sides in Northern Ireland so he can reset relations with the EU – and the United States – without angering lawmakers in his own party and in Belfast who are most wedded to Brexit.

His deal seeks to resolve the tensions caused by the Northern Ireland protocol, a complex agreement which set the trading rules for the British-governed region that London agreed before it left the EU in 2020, but now says are unworkable.

In order to keep open the politically-sensitive border with EU-member Ireland, Northern Ireland remained in the EU single market for goods, raising the prospect it would slowly diverge from the rest of the United Kingdom, fuelling fears in unionist communities.

Sunak said his agreement, the Windsor Framework, would strengthen the union, scrap rules that affected everything from the import of sausages to sandwiches, and give lawmakers on the ground a greater say over the rules and regulations they take from Brussels.