Northern Ireland’s DUP to vote against Sunak’s Brexit plan
- Lawmakers will vote on Wednesday against the draft deal’s trading arrangements ‘whilst continuing to seek clarification’
- Sunak hoped the deal would end acrimony since UK left EU, but DUP stance suggests no end in sight to political impasse
Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party said they would unanimously vote against Rishi Sunak’s post-Brexit deal for the region in a significant blow to the prime minister.
“Our party officers, the only decision-making mechanism in our party on these matters, 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 reworking that our members of Parliament would vote against the draft statutory instrument on Wednesday,” DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said in a statement.
MPs are due to hold their first vote on Wednesday on new trading arrangements for Northern Ireland, as Sunak seeks to move forward with his agreement with the European Union.
Specifically, lawmakers will vote on the so-called Stormont Brake, a portion of the deal that aims to give Northern Ireland’s lawmakers a potential veto over changes to EU rules.
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The stance by the DUP suggests there is no end in sight to the political impasse in Northern Ireland, where the region’s devolved government has been suspended for more than a year, because the party refuses to participate in the power-sharing government until its concerns about the Brexit deal are addressed.