Tears from 'Brexit hard man' Baker over PM's Northern Ireland deal

2023-02-28

‘Brexit hard man’ Steve Baker breaks down in tears as he hails PM’s Northern Ireland deal an achievement to match the Good Friday Agreement that ended the Troubles – and admits years of political rows over Europe brought on personal ‘mental health crisis’

Used TV interviews to urged eurosceptics – including DUP – to support the deal
‘Personally I think it’s … at the level of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement’

A senior minister and former hardline rebel on Brexit fought back tears last night as he backed Rishi Sunak’s Northern Ireland deal – and revealed the toll the past seven years have taken on his mental health.

Steve Baker, a self-styled ‘Brexit hardman’ who is now a Northern Ireland Minister, suggested that the Windsor Framework was statecraft on a par with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended the Troubles.

In a series of television interviews he urged his fellow eurosceptics – including the Democratic Unionist Party – to support the deal and allow Northern Ireland to move on.

‘Personally I think it’s a kind of, for want of a better term, statesmanship, which is at the level of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement,’ he told ITV’s Peston.

He also revealed that in November 2021, after almost two years of Covid pandemic and five years since the EU referendum, he found himself ‘in a ball crying in my office’.

Mr Sunak stepped up his sales pitch on the Brexit deal today – and warned the wavering DUP the plan will go ahead eve if they are not on board.

Later, speaking to the BBC’s Newsnight, he added: ‘Seven years of this cost me my mental health. The beard, the jewellery, is about my recovery. In November ’21 I had a major mental health crisis. I had anxiety and depression – I couldn’t go on.

‘People couldn’t tell. I made a big keynote speech in the afternoon. But make no mistake, holding these tigers by the tail – Brexit, Covid Recovery Group, Net Zero Scrutiny Group, the tax stuff we did with Conservative Way Forward – took its toll.

‘We’re all only human and the way I’ve led rebellions, no one should have to do. And this is an important moment for me personally, because I can authentically say ‘he’s done it’.’

Mr Sunak stepped up his sales pitch on the Brexit deal today – and warned the wavering DUP the plan will go ahead eve if they are not on board.

On a visit to Belfast, the PM said he ‘hand on heart’ believes he has done the best for Northern Ireland.

He insisted the blueprint – rewriting the divorce treaty to bring the province back under UK tax and regulatory rules, as well as introducing a ‘Stormont Brake’ on new EU laws – will remove any trace of a hard border with mainland Britain.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Sunak said he hoped the DUP will come round to the deal once they have had time to study it in detail. But he stressed that it will go ahead regardless of their stance, arguing what mattered was the ‘people of Northern Ireland’ rather than any party.

‘This I believe does address the concerns that people had,’ he said.

The comments heap pressure on DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson to sign up to the deal and restore powersharing at Stormont. But he was carefully neutral this morning, saying they would take time to study the detail. ‘I’ve said progress has been made,’ he told Today. ‘We continue to have some concerns.’

Colleagues have been less restrained, with MP Ian Paisley saying he does not believe the new terms ‘cut the mustard’.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly admitted in a round of interviews today that it would be ‘very disappointing’ if the DUP does not approve the deal and rejoin powersharing.

Sir Jeffrey denied that he is unwilling to participate at Stormont because Sinn Fein would hold the First Minister post, after becoming the largest party at elections last year. The institutions have been suspended since early last year due to the DUP boycott over the protocol.

The PM will return to address MPs this evening, after his Windsor Framework was given a broad welcome.

The premier also acknowledged that he had spoken to predecessor Boris Johnson about the proposals, but played down any political manoeuvring saying ‘this is not about personalities’.

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