Sunak’s biggest challenge is to sell the deal to Brexit extremists and the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), who again warned over the weekend that they will accept nothing beyond their red lines.
“Since the beginning of Brexit, it has been a complicated issue that everyone has seen coming,” says Europe correspondent Stefan de Vries. “Now a rabbit has to come out of the top hat.”
“Now a rabbit has to come out of the top hat.”
And while Downing Street sources say Sunak and von der Leyen have yet to deliberate, according to The Guardian, it is widely believed that the assembly will approve a revision of Boris Johnson’s protocol for post-Brexit deals in Northern Ireland.
High tech solution
The deal is not expected to change the way Northern Ireland trades with the EU or the rest of the UK across the Irish border, but it will introduce systems to ease checks across the Irish Sea, which has infuriated the DUP and many Conservatives.
De Vries calls it the magic solution: ‘The details are unclear, but the use of the technology is being considered. That the goods are already checked when they leave the factory or production. The commitment to high technology as products travel from the UK to Northern Ireland.’
Sunak is expected to hold a cabinet meeting on Monday afternoon and a joint press conference with von der Leyen will likely follow. He will then adjourn the House of Commons. Sunak said the deal solves all practical problems. If that doesn’t work, Sunak has a big problem. If he succeeds, Sunak will be able to accomplish what his three predecessors have failed to do.’
“If it doesn’t work, Sunak is in big trouble.”
If Sunak is successful, ‘then he will want to work towards closer cooperation with Brussels. So actually a partial reversal of Brexit, because everyone can see that it wasn’t a smart move after all.’