The DUP has welcomed “progress” in talks to resolve the Irish border issue but warned Rishi Sunak that Northern Ireland must not be “abandoned to the EU”.
The prime minister has been in Belfast on Friday holding meetings with parties amid reports of progress towards a revised Brexit agreement.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said negotiations were at “a big moment” and that it was “safe to say that progress has been made across a range of areas” but that there was more work to be done.
Sinn Fein also welcomed “very significant progress” after meeting with the PM, while the moderate Ulster Unionist Party suggested there had been quicker than expected resolution of “sticking points”.
Speaking after meeting with Mr Sunak, DUP chief Sir Jeffrey warned: “The decisions that will be taken by the Prime Minister and by the European Commission will either consign Northern Ireland to more division or they will clear a path towards healing and to the restoration of the political institutions.”
It comes after Sammy Wilson, one of the DUP’s MPs, said his party could not accept Northern Ireland being “abandoned to the EU” with automatic application of European law – a key plank of the existing deal.
The DUP’s view on the agreement is important because the party is currently blocking the restoration of a power sharing administration in Stormont – leaving Northern Ireland without a government.
The deal on the cards is expected to move to eliminate many of the checks placed on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
But it would be unlikely to remove the application of EU law to Northern Ireland, a fundamental principle of the treaty signed by the UK and EU.
Speaking after a meeting with Mr Sunak, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said there were greater issues at stake than the DUP’s red lines.
“I believe that very, very significant progress has been made and I believe that a deal is absolutely possible, and absolutely necessary,” she said.
“I think the British Prime Minister is here to see what everybody thinks and to listen to all perspectives.
“The DUP talk about their tests. But, you know, there’s one bigger test for everyone. And that’s the test of what people expect.
“There will be a test for everyone. The test will be are you prepared to govern? Are you prepared to share power on the basis of equality? And everybody concerned is going to face that test, we believe, fairly soon.”
Ms McDonald described the meeting with the British prime minister as “very constructive” and said MR Sunak “accepts that the core of the protocol has worked” but needed further refinement.
“There’s no doubt, the protocol is a consequence of Brexit and the protocol is necessary, and the Prime Minister is in absolutely no doubt of that,” she said.
Naomi Long, leader of the non-aligned Alliance party, also described her meeting with Mr Sunak as “constructive and positive”, while UUP chief Doug Beattie said Mr Sunak had told him that “there’s a way to go yet”.
“That doesn’t mean that things won’t move quickly, ” he said.
“Really, all he said was things are moving quicker than he probably anticipated them actually moving. But when he says there’s still some way to go, that sort of tells me that we could be talking next week, that doesn’t mean it will be next week, it could be the week after.
“I think some things that were sticking points may have been fixed quicker than they probably thought they were going to be fixed, and, therefore, where they thought they may have had a long protracted discussion about something, I think it resolved itself quite quickly.”
The DUP’s Sir Jeffrey, who met with Mr Sunak both on Thursday evening and Friday lunchtime, told reporters: “We have not yet seen the final text of an agreement, clearly there will be further discussions between the UK Government and the European Union but I think it is safe to say that progress has been made across a range of areas, but there are still some areas where further work is required.”
He added: “If and when a final agreement is reached, we will want to carefully consider the detail of that agreement and decide if the agreement does in fact meet our seven tests. We’ve been very clear with the Prime Minister that those seven tasks remain the basis upon which we will judge any agreement.
“I’ve indicated to the Prime Minister that it is fundamentally important that he agrees the right deal.
“I want to hear that Brussels will stretch itself to recognise the concerns that we have as unionists and that this process will correct the wrongs of the last negotiations. He also said talks should not be “led by a calendar”.
Foreign secretary James Cleverly was in Brussels on Friday, where he held talks with EU Brexit chief Maros Sefcovic. Mr Cleverley described the meeting as “constructive” and added that “intensive work continues” on trying to find a solution.
In further signs of movement, European member state ambassadors were briefed on talks in Brussels on Friday morning. Mr Sunak is also expected to meet European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich over the weekend.
Though Britain signed up to the Northern Ireland Protocol as part of its Brexit deal, it has now trying to renegotiate aspects of it.
The UK says the protocol is not working well and has disrupted trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Though polls suggest it enjoys broad popular support in Northern Ireland, some elements in the unionist community are unhappy at the new controls on doing business with the rest of the UK.
The agreement effectively keeps Northern Ireland inside the EU’s customs union and applies some elements of the single market. It was negotiated so that there would be no need for border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, an objective agreed by both the UK and EU to prevent the return of a so-called “hard border” – part of the Good Friday peace settlement.
