The UK government is tabling legislation to end post-Brexit checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Significantly, the Withdrawal Act will also be amended, meaning EU law will no longer apply automatically in Northern Ireland.
The details are contained in a government document which effectively details the deal to restore power-sharing at Stormont.
The 80-page document comes in three parts: one setting out changes to the law and their impact, an annex on the constitutional context, and a second annex on additional measures to strengthen Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.
Those measures include an East-West Council, a new trade body and one UK cabinet meeting in Northern Ireland annually.
Politics latest: Starmer mocks Sunak on economy after Tory MP says £120,000 salary not enough to pay mortgage
The changes will have an impact on the Windsor Framework, the deal Rishi Sunak signed with the European Union.
But sources close to negotiations say they “will come as no surprise” to Brussels, which has been kept informed.
Words like “flexibility” and “pragmatism” are being used a lot by players on all sides, as well as the feeling that “conversations have produced trust”.
A Commons vote on the details contained in the legislation is expected tomorrow.
The legal changes reflect what has been described as “the democratic deficit”, giving Stormont a greater role in scrutiny.
That strengthens the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) argument for a restoration of the power-sharing government at the heart of the peace process.
The document, titled Safeguarding The Union, sets out the government’s intentions of what it wants to achieve in Northern Ireland, which has been without government since 2022.
The DUP had collapsed power-sharing at Stormont in protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements, which left a trade border down the Irish Sea and additional checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
…
