Boris Johnson, Liz Truss to vote against Rishi Sunak's "unacceptable" Brexit deal

WORLD  22 March 2023 - 17:43

Boris Johnson has said he will not be voting for Rishi Sunak's Brexit deal, saying the "best course of action" is to instead proceed with his Northern Ireland Protocol bill.

MPs will vote on the deal, dubbed the Windsor Framework, for the first time on March 22 afternoon, with MPs to decide whether they want to back the Stormont brake, LBC reports.

The former prime minister has argued that the Windsor Framework would mean that Northern Ireland is "captured" by EU laws, setting it apart from the UK, or that the UK was unable to "take advantage of Brexit".

"The proposed arrangements would mean either that Northern Ireland remained captured by the EU legal order - and was increasingly divergent from the rest of the UK - or they would mean that the whole of the UK was unable properly to diverge and take advantage of Brexit," Mr Johnson said.

"That is not acceptable. I will be voting against the proposed arrangements today. Instead, the best course of action is to proceed with Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, and make sure that we take back control."

Two hours after Mr Johnson's announcement Liz Truss - who replaced him as Prime Minister - announced she would also vote against Mr Sunak's bill.

Her spokesman said: "After examining the detail of the Stormont Brake and Windsor Framework, Liz has decided to vote against the Statutory Instrument this afternoon.

"As the instigator of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, Liz has concluded that the Government’s latest deal with the EU does not satisfactorily resolve the issues thrown up by the Protocol and almost fatally impinges on the UK’s ability to diverge from EU rules and regulations."

It comes after a group of Eurosceptic Tories described one part of the agreement as "practically useless", dashing Mr Sunak's hopes of passing the bill without relying on Labour.

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