Take the deal

The new Brexit deal is the best Britain can expect. Support it
Both the Tories and the Democratic Unionist Party should get behind the new
agreement with the EU

Brexit was bound to be difficult for Northern Ireland, since it has the uk’s only
land border with the eu. All sides agreed that a hard north-south border with
customs controls risked upsetting the peace process that culminated in the
Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Yet if Britain left the eu’s single market and
customs union, a border had to go somewhere.

Boris Johnson opted to take Great Britain out of the single market and customs
union but to leave Northern Ireland, in effect, in both. That necessitated an east-
west border in the Irish Sea, even if Mr Johnson pretended otherwise. When
controls were duly imposed, he was characteristically quick to disavow his deal.
He later brought in a parliamentary bill to let the government tear up parts of
the protocol that created the border.

It has fallen to Mr Johnson’s successor-but-one, Rishi Sunak, to clear up this

mess. He and the eu have been sensibly pragmatic. The “Windsor framework”
he has agreed upon with Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s
president, hugely simplifies the customs controls still needed. A system of
“green” lanes for trusted traders will minimise checks on goods not intended to
move into the eu single market, helped by granting eu officials access to real-
time trade data. And a new “Stormont brake” creates an emergency guard
against unwanted single-market rule changes in Northern Ireland, even if it will
be hard to use.

Because the deal eliminates many unnecessary checks, it will be welcomed by

many businesses and ordinary voters in the province. Yet Brexit ideologues in
the Conservative Party, along with many in the Democratic Unionist Party
(dup), are unhappy because Mr Sunak has not secured significant changes to the
treaty text and has conceded that the European Court of Justice, the ultimate
arbiter of single-market rules, will still have some jurisdiction in Northern
Ireland. He is also dropping Mr Johnson’s bill to rip up the protocol.

Both groups of opponents should reconsider. Hardline Tory mps who dislike Mr
Sunak’s deal have not offered a serious alternative. Sticking with the status quo
disrupts trade and could trigger renewed litigation. Persisting with the bill to
allow unilateral repudiation of the protocol would break international law and
envenom already poisonous relations with the eu.

It is harder to satisfy the dup, which complains, accurately, that the protocol
puts barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the uk. That gave
the dup the excuse to boycott the province’s power-sharing executive. Yet it
should be remembered that Brexit, which the dup backed, was rejected by a
majority of Northern Irish voters. Most support a better-functioning protocol
that gives Northern Ireland unfettered access to the eu and uk markets. Mr
Sunak’s deal does not give the dup all it wanted. It could still be improved by a
veterinary agreement with the eu that would further reduce checks on food. But
if the party rejects the deal, it will not get a better one. It should accept this as
the best available. And that should clear the way for its return to the power-
sharing executive.

Moreover, the deal is good for Britain as a whole. Armed with his protocol-
busting bill, Mr Johnson believed that he could twist eu arms. In fact,
the patient collaboration between Mr Sunak and the commission has
improved uk-eu relations more broadly. That will allow Britain to become an
associate member of the eu’s Horizon research programme. It should bolster
security and foreign-policy co-operation, something that matters more since
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Better relations with France could even
boost bilateral co-operation to deter migrants from crossing the channel in
small boats. And the deal would do much to repair Britain’s relations with
America, whose president cares deeply about peace in Northern Ireland.
When mps come to vote on Mr Sunak’s framework, they should wholeheartedly
support it.■