Prime minister to appear on BBC radio programme before meeting workers in Belfast and later addressing Tory backbench MPs
Good morning. Yesterday, after months of negotiating a deal and days of dithering about how to present it, Rishi Sunak finally announed the “Windsor framework” – the new version of the Northern Ireland protocol agreed with the EU. He was worried provoking a Tory Brexiter backlash, but yesterday the announcement landed about as well as he could have expected – or perhaps even better.
Tory MPs were largely supportive and the Brexit hardliners in the ERG, who only a week ago said that any deal that kept Northern Ireland under the remit of the European court of justice (as the Windsor framework does) would be unacceptable, were reserving judgment, and not speaking out in public. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, was reasonably positive (by unionist standards). Outright criticism was only coming from people like Nigel Farage and the DUP hardline Ian Paisley, both of whom said the deal did not cut the mustard. Even that, by Brexiter standards, is hardly the most damning verdict.
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