Sunak to hold discussions with EU in push to break Brexit deadlock

Rishi Sunak to hold discussions with EU leaders in final push to break Brexit deadlock and agree a deal on the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol

• The PM will meet with leaders on the sidelines of the Munich security conference
• Rishi Sunak is now set to try to finalise an agreement at Munich on Saturday  

Rishi Sunak will hold talks with European leaders this week in a final push to get a Brexit deal on Northern Ireland over the line.

Amid rumours of an agreement that could be announced in the next fortnight, he is meeting EU counterparts on the sidelines of the Munich security conference.

EU sources said last night that a deal was ‘almost done’ and a Whitehall source claimed the text had been on the Prime Minister’s desk for more than a week. But Downing Street insisted both sides were still engaged in ‘intensive scoping’.

The Whitehall insider told The Times: ‘He has basically been sitting on it, asking for bits of clarification, but the deal is done.’

The PM is now set to try to finalise the agreement at Munich on Saturday. French president Emmanuel Macron, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen are all due to be there.

Rishi Sunak will hold talks with European leaders this week in a final push to get a Brexit deal on Northern Ireland over the line

It is believed all parties want a deal done by the time Mr Sunak goes to France for a major summit with Mr Macron in early March.

It was reported last month that the UK and EU had struck a deal on customs which would avoid the need for routine checks on British goods going to Northern Ireland.

A senior EU source close to the talks said last night: ‘They will try to land a deal next week, by the end of February at the latest.’ Another source added: ‘The deal is almost done. It’s in No 10’s hands now.’

Brussels sources say the agreement will make the European Court of Justice the ultimate arbiter of EU law disputes involving Northern Ireland. But UK sources have insisted that most legal clashes on trade would not involve the ECJ.

Tory MPs last night warned against retaining a role for the European court. A senior Brexit-backing MP said that if the deal ‘does not remove EU law from Northern Ireland, so that the province is treated on the same basis as the rest of the United Kingdom, then it is difficult to see how any such arrangement can ultimately succeed.’

Ex-Brexit minister David Jones said that unless Northern Ireland is ‘freed’ from the ECJ then ‘you can’t say that the UK has the complete sovereignty of its own territory’.

He was sure that unionists in the province would not accept such a deal ‘so we will not see a restoration of the Northern Ireland institutions, and therefore it will be positively imperilling the continuation of the Good Friday Agreement, which is the last thing that anybody wants’.

Ex-Brexit minister David Jones (pictured) said that unless Northern Ireland is ‘freed’ from the ECJ then ‘you can’t say that the UK has the complete sovereignty of its own territory’

The Democratic Unionist Party pulled out of Belfast’s power-sharing government in protest at the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was part of the Brexit deal designed to avoid returning to a hard border with the Irish Republic.

A UK Government spokesman said last night: ‘Our priority is protecting the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and preserving political stability in Northern Ireland and the UK internal market.

‘Any solution on the Protocol must address the range of issues on the ground in Northern Ireland. We are currently engaging in intensive scoping talks with the EU to find solutions to these problems.’

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