Northern Ireland Assembly set for return as MPs vote today on UK-DUP deal

The British measures which secured the Democratic Unionist Party’s return to powersharing are expected to become law today, paving the way for the imminent restoration of Northern Ireland’s political institutions.

MPs will vote on two pieces of legislation following a debate in the House of Commons, but this is a formality as it has the support of both the British government and its official opposition.

The outgoing speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Alex Maskey, wrote to MLAs on Wednesday to inform them preparations were being made to enable a sitting to take place at short notice.

“In January 2020, the Assembly was summoned within 24 hours and a similar timeframe may be necessary on this occasion,” he wrote.

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Saturday is believed to be the most likely day for an Assembly recall, when the first order of business will be to nominate a speaker and fill the first and deputy first minister roles.

Michelle O’Neill will become the first nationalist to hold the position of first minister, while the Lagan Valley MLA Emma Little-Pengelly is tipped as the front-runner for the role of deputy first minister, given that the DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has said he intends to remain as an MP until the general election.

[ EU to ‘analyse carefully’ agreement that pledges ‘unfettered access’ to Britain while removing most post-Brexit checks on goods ]

The command paper aimed at addressing the concerns which led to the DUP’s two-year boycott of the Northern Executive and Assembly was published on Wednesday. The 80-page document, Safeguarding the Union, was aimed at reassuring unionists about Northern Ireland’s integral place in the UK.

It removes routine checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and replaces the so-called green lane with a UK internal market lane. It also ends dynamic alignment with European Union law and introduces a legal requirement for new legislation to be “assessed as to whether it impacts on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain”.

The UK government also committed to “remove the legal duties to have regard to the ‘all-island economy’” though it is not clear what this will mean in practice.

The British foreign secretary, David Cameron, outlined the package in a call to the European Commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, on Wednesday morning. Mr Sefcovic said the commission would “analyse carefully the texts published today”.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there would be “questions” about the deal and its effect on trading arrangements but that as things stood there were no big “red flags”.

[ What is in the new post-Brexit trade plan aimed at breaking the Stormont deadlock? ]

Downing Street has characterised the measures as “operational” changes to the Windsor Framework which, while “significant”, did not alter the “fundamentals” and would not require specific EU approval.

The DUP leader gave a number of media interviews on Wednesday as he attempted to sell the deal to his party, saying the DUP had achieved “clear” alterations to the Windsor Framework and repeatedly challenging “naysayers” to outline their own achievements.

In a joint press conference alongside the Northern Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, Mr Donaldson said his critics had achieved “a big blank sheet of nothing” whereas he could “demonstrate very clearly what we have delivered, and it’s there for everyone to read”.

He denied there was division in his party over the decision to return to powersharing, saying “I don’t accept the characterisation that my party is split” and the vote at Monday’s meeting of the party executive was “absolutely decisive.”

In the House of Commons, the DUP MP Sammy Wilson – one of the party’s hardliners – criticised not the party leader but the “spineless, weak-kneed, Brexit-betraying government,” indicating his tacit acceptance of the deal, while other senior figures, including the East Derry MP Gregory Campbell, said they supported it.

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