Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
15 min listen
James Heale speaks to Isabel Hardman and Katy Balls about some of the key points in the Windsor Framework. Having reached an agreement with the EU, can Rishi Sunak do the same with both the Tories and the DUP?
Nicola Sturgeon’s shock resignation has left Labour feeling hopeful. Might this be their chance to make significant gains north of the border at the next general election? Even before the First Minister’s unexpected announcement, the Scottish Labour party was already running at 29 per cent in polls of Westminster vote intentions, 10 points up on its tally in 2019. Instead of being in third place (and 26 points behind the SNP), it now occupied second place – ahead of the Conservatives and only 14 points behind the SNP. True, at that level of support the party might still gain no more than half a dozen seats at the expense of
Knowing when to accept victory is a key political skill. But it is not a universally held one among leadership cadres. The Palestinian people, for instance, have in the past been led by men who have turned down hugely advantageous deals offering major concessions. Once rejected on grounds of not amounting to absolutely everything desired, those concessions never appear again. Were the Democratic Unionist Party to accept Rishi Sunak’s ‘Windsor Framework’ agreement with the EU, the party would widely be regarded to have played a blinder once the dust had settled. Having correctly called the bluff of establishment forces who foisted the original Northern Ireland Protocol upon them and led
Rishi’s deal changes everything – even, even if it is eventually sunk by DUP obduracy. What really matters is the change of tone. Many of my fiercest Brexiteer friends shared with me a horror at the very unBritish, almost yobbish aggression in the UK’s dealing with the EU in these torrid years since the referendum. To some, it seemed, it was not enough to want our sovereignty back, it was also necessary to hate Brussels and all EU members: to question their motives. Who knows what could be achieved now the tone of our dialogue has warmed For those of us born in the early ‘50s, the memories are still
Former princes meet presidents all the time. It’s a crucial element of the day job. The key for royals, as for politicians, is timing. And the encounter between King Charles and the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was seriously mistimed. Whatever the spin – and there’ll be plenty – the photograph of the two together can be interpreted as the Head of State endorsing the Windsor Framework. Such an endorsement is something Charles should run a million miles from, given the ink isn’t yet dry on the paperwork and the detail of the deal has yet to be examined forensically by all interested politicians. I have to assume
Ahead of Rishi Sunak unveiling his revised deal on the Protocol, there was no shortage of Tory MPs – including some close allies – warning him to stay away from the issue. The thinking was that a row over Brexit would risk reopening old wounds and give Boris Johnson the chance to mount a comeback by depicting Sunak as weak on a key issue. Now this scenario could still come to pass. but a few hours after Sunak’s announcement, things are going better than many in No. 10 dared hope. Despite reports that Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker has been on resignation watch in recent days, the eurosceptic MP has
Rishi Sunak’s sell to the Commons this evening was that his Windsor Framework has ‘taken back control’ and that MPs need to ‘seize the opportunity of this moment’. In other words, Brexit is done and history will judge you if you don’t back what’s just been agreed. The Prime Minister was keen to pay tribute to his predecessors – not all of whom are present in the Commons as it debates his deal – for ‘laying the groundwork’ for it (this was too much for some MPs, who burst out laughing). But he also confirmed that the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill was dead, saying it had only ever been intended
Soon after Boris Johnson struck a deal with the EU in October 2019 on the Withdrawal Agreement, including the Northern Ireland protocol, the British government demanded changes to the Protocol. It had some strong arguments: the Protocol required checks on goods flowing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, which inconvenienced some businesses and consumers in that region. Furthermore, the application of EU law to Northern Ireland, with the consequent role for the European Court of Justice (ECJ), threatened many Unionists’ sense of British identity. But the EU refused to make changes, arguing that in order to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the former had to stay in the EU’s single market
White smoke has emerged from Windsor. Now that a deal between the UK and EU over Northern Ireland has emerged, can the DUP endorse it? Early reports that the party were on board – and were planning on using a dinner in London this evening to begin rationalising this to their supporters – were dismissed by the DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson as ‘entirely fictional’. He reiterated the line that he and his party needed time to chew it over. The DUP themselves have said in their own response to today’s developments that there has been progress. The fact they have not gone for an outright no will please Downing Street
Rishi Sunak’s government has succeeded in renegotiating the Protocol, despite EU insistence that this could not and would not be done. That there is a Windsor Framework is proof of that. A new geopolitical reality in Europe required Western unity, it is true, but there was more than that. The UK found a way to persuade the EU of the moral, political and legal case for a renegotiation — overturning the significant moral, political and legal impediments that held the EU back from any ‘renegotiation’. This was due to an intellectual transformation of the understanding of the relationship of the Good Friday Agreement and the Protocol — one promoted by the
14 min listen
Today Rishi Sunak has reached a revised agreement with the EU on Northern Ireland, and hailed it a ‘turning point’ for the people of Northern Ireland. But how will the DUP and – more importantly – Tory MPs, react? Isabel Hardman speaks to Katy Balls and Sam Lowe. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
Rishi Sunak and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen hailed a ‘decisive breakthrough’ as they unveiled their updated version of the Northern Ireland Protocol deal, but will it wash with the people of Northern Ireland? For those just back from Mars, the Protocol was an attempt to reconcile the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union with the indigestible fact of a land border between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland. It was incorporated into the Brexit withdrawal agreement after months of torturous negotiations. The Protocol was designed to enable Northern Ireland to trade freely with the EU market and so eliminate the need for physical border controls
Huwara is a Palestinian town in the heart of the Shomron, the mountainous northern portion of the territory Israel refers to as Judea and Samaria and the world knows as the West Bank. Huwara is smouldering today after a night of rioting and fire-setting by Israeli residents. On Sunday, two Israelis, brothers Hallel and Yagel Yaniv, 21 and 19 years old, from the nearby Israeli settlement of Har Bracha, were murdered by a Palestinian gunman. They were travelling through Huwara when they were gunned down at point-blank range while sitting in traffic. Their mother Esti said: ‘We have a huge hole in our hearts. Nothing will close that hole, not
After months of negotiating, Rishi Sunak has today unveiled his changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol. They focus on three key areas – trade, regulatory divergence and the role of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). At a press conference today, Sunak outlined these under the so-called ‘Windsor Framework’ agreed with the European Commission. The first area of dispute has been trade – and it is here that Rishi Sunak has secured his most consumer-friendly ‘wins’. There has effectively been a customs border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland since 2020. Presently all goods are treated as though they are going into the European Union, despite Northern Ireland not being
Rishi Sunak has hailed his new deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol a ‘turning point’ for the people of Northern Ireland. Titled the ‘Windsor framework’, the Prime Minister argued that the revised agreement would ensure stability in Northern Ireland and the strengthening of the Union. As the text of the deal is released, parties in Northern Ireland – along with Tory MPs – will now take time to consider the agreement in detail. However, before they do so, Sunak used the press conference – where he appeared along side European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen – to highlight what he viewed as the key changes. Sunak will want to
An agreement on the Northern Ireland Protocol has been reached. That’s according to a senior government source after Rishi Sunak and president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen met at Windsor. The pair are due to give a press conference in the next hour to confirm the news. The mood music today has largely been positive for Sunak. A number of senior Brexiteers have suggested they are encouraged by the briefings they have received and there are reports the DUP could back the deal. Government minister Steve Baker – a former chair of the European Research Group – has also given a strong indication he will not resign as
Our growth rate has been miserable. We have not invested enough. And over thirteen years the Conservatives have cut spending too much, damaged our trading relationships with our major neighbours, and made a mess of the tax system. These were Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s major criticism of Tory economics today in a speech in which he unveiled his latest plans for the economy. He summed it all up with one damning statistic. We will, he argued, soon be poorer than Poland. Poland! But hold on. Why does Sir Keir imagine the British have some God-given right to be richer than the Poles? And why doesn’t he take a moment to reflect
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’.
Is it wise for King Charles to get dragged into the Brexit deal row? European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is in Windsor today to sign off on an agreement over post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland. Afterwards, von der Leyen will meet the King for tea at Windsor Castle. Such a meeting – at a time of political tension – is a mistake. That the monarch should be above the trivial concerns of everyday politics is one of the most closely-observed rules of the British constitution. Her Majesty the Queen used this as a guiding principle throughout her many years on the throne. Indeed, when it was feared Queen
Many have weighed in on how Vladimir Putin’s reign will end. Now it is the turn of Volodymyr Zelensky, asserting that he will be killed by his own. But is this wishful thinking, prediction or trolling? The Ukrainian president was speaking in a documentary, when he said that There will definitely be a moment when the fragility of Putin’s regime will be felt inside the state and then the predators will devour a predator. It is very important, and they will need a reason to justify this. They will remember. They will find a reason to kill the killer. Will it work? Yes. When? I don’t know. There is often