Northern Ireland's DUP to vote against new Brexit deal

Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party is to vote against a central element of the British government's deal with Brussels on post-Brexit trade rules in parliament this week, leader Jeffrey Donaldson said on Monday. Parliament will on Wednesday debate and vote on the so-called "Stormont brake", a key part of an agreement that enables Britain to stop new European Union laws from applying to goods in Northern Ireland if so requested by a third of lawmakers in the province's devolved legislature.

Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party is to vote against a central element of the British government's deal with Brussels on post-Brexit trade rules in parliament this week, leader Jeffrey Donaldson said on Monday.

Parliament will on Wednesday debate and vote on the so-called "Stormont brake", a key part of an agreement that enables Britain to stop new European Union laws from applying to goods in Northern Ireland if so requested by a third of lawmakers in the province's devolved legislature. The DUP's opposition is a setback to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and could boost opposition to the deal by sceptical members of his own Conservative Party.

But Wednesday's vote is likely to pass as the opposition Labour Party supports the overall agreement. "Whilst representing real progress the 'brake' does not deal with the fundamental issue which is the imposition of EU law by the Protocol," Donaldson said in a statement.

"Our party officers ... met this morning and unanimously agreed that in the context of our ongoing concerns and the need to see further progress secured whilst continuing to seek clarification, change and re-working that our Members of Parliament would vote against the draft statutory instrument." The DUP is continuing a year-long boycott of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government due to its opposition to post-Brexit trade rules. But Donaldson has suggested the party might be able to live with an adapted version of the current deal.

"We will continue to work with the Government on all the outstanding issues relating to the Windsor Framework package to try to restore the delicate political balances within Northern Ireland and to seek to make further progress on all these matters," Donaldson said.

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