ConservativeHome’s deputy editor speaks to Michael Portillo about whether or not the events of the past week have made the Union stronger.
The vote on Sunak’s deal confirmed a trend of increasing separation that has been apparent since the word ‘Backstop’ first raised its ugly head.
It will give cover to Conservative opponents of the deal. But the crucial question is the future of Stormont, and on that the Unionists are silent.
Of the party’s eight Members of Parliament, four struck a sceptical or hostile note whilst the others took a more reserved or conciliatory view.
The current outrage can be written off as displacement activity by those shocked by a deal from Sunak that forces them to consider a compromise.
Nearly seven years after the campaign, we are finally moving towards the kind of deal we might have had all along had we never joined.
It’s possible that he has pulled off a political coup, begun radically to re-set the UK’s relationship with the EU – and created the circumstances in which voters may give him a second look.
If Sunak reaches a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol, he will need it endorsed by DUP politicians with whom he has almost nothing in common.
No member of the ERG rose to do the Leader of the Opposition’s dirty work for him by plunging a dagger between the PM’s shoulder blades.
The former Business Secretary adds that “laws in Northern Ireland should not be imposed on them from the European Union”
It would be unwise to scupper a deal on data which would allow hands-off, targeted enforcement and free local and mainland-facing Ulster businesses from EU control.
Getting Stormont up and running for the Belfast Agreement’s anniversary in April seems to be setting the pace, but only the DUP can make that happen.
They didn’t get a surge when the UK Internal Market Act passed and saw only a temporary one after their Supreme Court defeat. What about now?
The Northern Ireland Protocol has been a stone in the shoe of our relations with Brussels and Washington. The Prime Minister deserves great credit for making progress.