Several Rishi Sunak ministers threaten to resign over Northern Ireland deal

Various British Government officials have announced the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, his intention of resign whether the agreement with the European Union on the Northern Ireland Protocol “undermines” British sovereignty over Northern Ireland.

As revealed by the newspaper The Times, Sunak has been warned that some conservative MPs of the most eurosceptic wing of the party could resign from their positions in the Executive as a result of the impasse that this mechanism is currently going through, part of the Brexit agreement agreed between London and Brussels.

Sunak has indicated that no agreement has yet been reached with the EU and that negotiations are continuing although, according to the British media, his circle had already informed him that “there is no hope” that an agreement will prosper if does not have the support of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP, second force).

[La UE y Reino Unido vuelven a la vía de la confrontación por el protocolo de Irlanda del Norte]

That formation left the Government of Belfast a year ago and refuses to share it with the nationalist Sinn Féin, winner of the elections, until the protocol is modified with arrangements that it considers acceptable to the unionist community.

A minister -whose identity has not been revealed- told the aforementioned newspaper that some colleagues tories they would resign if the Government tries to force a deal that “undermines” Northern Irish sovereignty.

From Downing Street – Sunak’s office and office – they insist that safeguarding the place of the province within the United Kingdom is one of the “priorities” of the chief executive.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, James Cleverley, He said on Monday that both parties continue to work “intensively” to reach an agreement and will continue to talk in the coming days, after holding a conversation with the Vice President of the European Commission (EC) for Interinstitutional Relations, Maros Sefcovicin which the British Minister for Northern Ireland also participated, Chris Heaton-Harris.

Northern Ireland Protocol

The protocol, devised to avoid a physical border between the two Irelands, keeps Northern Ireland within the EU and UK internal marketTherefore, controls on trade between the United Kingdom and the EU are carried out at the Northern Irish entry points, which entails a new bureaucracy that affects trade.

This commercial border located in the Irish Sea is also a political barrier for the Protestant unionist community, which maintains that it differentiates the province and endangers its relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom, especially now that the nationalists want to advance towards their objective history of reunifying the island of Ireland.