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Tory Brexit hardliners mulling response to
Sunak’s Northern Ireland deal
Nadine Dorries has criticised those ‘gushing’ over
Windsor framework, with ERG to meet on Tuesday
Aubrey
Allegretti Political correspondent
@breeallegretti
Mon 27 Feb
2023 17.51 GMT
Hardline
Brexiters who were threatening to rebel over Rishi Sunak’s new deal with the EU
will decide how to respond at a meeting on Tuesday night, while a key Boris
Johnson ally has hit out those already “gushing” at the agreement.
In a sign
he was willing to face down his critics, the prime minister said MPs would get
a vote “at the appropriate time” on the details of his agreement to overhaul
arrangements in Northern Ireland on customs and jurisdiction over EU law, known
as the Windsor framework.
There was
no rush by Conservative backbenchers or the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to
embrace or denounce the deal, with both groups expected to take several days to
decide how to respond.
But the
threat of a critical intervention by Johnson remains, given Sunak was expected
to drop a controversial bill introduced under the former prime minister that would
have overridden the old protocol.
Some of the
old Brexit “Spartans” who helped bring down Theresa May over her deal in 2019
are now part of the government, including Steve Baker. He gave a thumbs up
after leaving Downing Street on Sunday night, which was taken as a sign of
approval of Sunak’s agreement, formally unveiled the following day.
The former
culture secretary Nadine Dorries hit out at Baker for “gushing about the deal”,
claiming he was a “key agitator” who helped to remove Johnson from Downing
Street last July. She said: “What shred of credibility he has left would be
destroyed if he came out against Sunak. He has nowhere else to go other than to
grin and support.”
Johnson has
urged Sunak not to drop his protocol bill, which drew a legal challenge from
the EU. But the prime minister is facing pressure to do so from senior European
leaders, including from the French president, Emmanuel Macron, with whom he is
expected to meet to discuss measures to tackle people being smuggled across the
Channel in small boats.
Any
rebellion may end up being small, Tory strategists believe. Hardline Brexiters,
including the UK’s former negotiator David Frost and ex-business secretary
Jacob Rees-Mogg, have so far refrained from making critical interventions about
the state of the deal from reports over the past week. But even a dozen
Conservative MPs opposing the deal could trigger bigger problems for Sunak
further down the line.
Anand
Menon, the director of the UK in a Changing Europe thinktank, said: “The danger
for the prime minister is that opposition might be cumulative. A few rebels on
the protocol, a few more on the budget – this could all build into a real
headache should the May local elections go badly.”
The
European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers will meet on Tuesday
night to discuss how to vote, with a “star chamber” of lawyers assembled to
scrutinise the plans for a veto for Stormont on new EU laws in Northern
Ireland.
Although
the ERG has vowed to remain “in lockstep” with the DUP, several members
privately told the Guardian they were broadly supportive of Sunak’s deal.
“Provided the details live up to the press conference, fundamentally, I think
this sounds like something they should be able to live with,” said one. Another
said they believed only 10 or so “headbangers” were “prepared to let the
perfect be the enemy of the good”.
Sunak
played down the significance of any rebellion. Speaking at a press conference
with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, on Monday, he
said: “Ultimately, this isn’t necessarily about me, it’s not about politicians.
It’s about the people of Northern Ireland. It’s about what’s best for them.”
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