A lot of the grand choreography around today’s Northern Ireland Protocol deal is designed to make it much harder for critics to cause chaos. There’s the meeting in Windsor between the King and Ursula von der Leyen, which Downing Street is insisting was something the Palace wanted, rather than being requested by Rishi Sunak.
The guaranteed way of making a revolt on anything worse is to deny MPs the chance for them to vote on it
I’m told that the King is deeply personally interested in this agreement, while the No. 10 official line is that it is ‘not uncommon for His Majesty to accept invitations to meet certain leaders’. It does also lend a weightiness and air of finality to today’s agreement, something Sunak will be hoping will make it harder for critics to draw out the argument much longer. Similarly, the location of the talks in Windsor – even if it is not officially badged the ‘Windsor Agreement’ – is a way of adding a sense of occasion.
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