The most important question at Prime Minister’s Questions came from DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, who brought the Chamber to silence as he demanded certain assurances from Rishi Sunak about the negotiations between the UK and EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Sunak has spent the past few days holed up in meetings with the most hardline of his MPs to try to find out what their concerns are ahead of an agreement potentially being reached. It was significant that his answer to Donaldson contained one of the issues that has been raised repeatedly in those meetings.
Donaldson asked him whether he accepted: ‘How important the constitutional and democratic issues are in relation to getting a solution and will he agree with me that it is unacceptable that EU laws are imposed on Northern Ireland with no democratic scrutiny or consent?’
Sunak responded by praising Donaldson and saying he knew he was sincere in his commitment to restoring power-sharing at Stormont, adding:
‘I can assure him that I agree: addressing the democratic deficit is an essential part of the negotiations that remain ongoing with the European Union. And just as he has been consistent, so have I and I assure him that this is at the very heart of the issues that must be addressed.’
There was a rumble of approval from his own benches at this.
Sunak has seemed impatient in private with some in his own party
Sunak had earlier provoked another rumble from across the Chamber when answering questions from Keir Starmer about the Protocol. Labour has said it will support any agreement in the national interest, which gave Starmer the chance to use his line about putting ‘country before party’.
The leader of the Opposition also asked whether parliament would get a vote on the matter, with Sunak replying:
‘Of course, Parliament will express its view but what is crucial here is that there this is not about his desire to play political games in this house with this situation.’ Starmer tried to underline the point that had just been made, saying ‘I take it from that that this House will get a vote and I look forward to that vote in due course.’
Starmer’s questions tried to pull out details of the agreement which has not yet been reached, something Sunak mocked as ‘jumping ahead’. But the purpose of it was largely to highlight the tensions within the Tory party and the inconsistencies in the position of the Prime Ministers who have tried to deal with the Protocol.
Tory MPs were mostly listening carefully to what Sunak had to say on an issue that could split the party still further than it already is, though Robert Buckland, a key proponent of scrapping the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, did ask him whether he shared ‘my frustration with the expressed views of people who are commenting about a deal that is yet to be reached’.
Sunak has seemed impatient in private with some in his own party who are doing just that, but he declined to express that view in public. Instead he talked about the need to ‘find enduring solutions to the challenges faced by the people of Northern Ireland’.
He will also need to find enduring solutions to that split in his party. A couple of his backbenchers were begging him to get on with legislation on illegal immigration in the Channel – something Sunak himself sees as being a way of uniting the Tories on a popular cause. But the commitment to some kind of way for the Commons to express its opinion on the Protocol means Sunak is going to need a lot more than unity legislation on other issues to hold things together.
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