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LONDON — MPs will vote next Wednesday on one of the key measures in the U.K. and EU’s Windsor Framework deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland, ministers have announced.
Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt told parliament Thursday that MPs will get the opportunity to debate and vote on the “Stormont Brake” element of the deal, immediately after the weekly prime minister’s questions joust on March 22.
Rishi Sunak struck the deal on the Northern Ireland protocol February, following months of talks over the contentious trading rules in the region.
The British prime minister has been trying to sell his Windsor Framework deal to the fiercely anti-protocol Democratic Unionist Party, which is yet to decide if it will back it and restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland. A handful of Sunak’s Brexiteer backbenchers have also raised concerns over the deal.
If approved, the Stormont Brake measure would effectively allow the Northern Ireland Assembly — currently on ice amid the DUP’s boycott — to veto changes to EU goods rules affecting the region in a negative way, although the DUP is currently poring over the small print to see if the arrangement stacks up.