London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Brexit: Rishi Sunak in Belfast for Northern Ireland Protocol talks with Stormont leaders

Brexit: Rishi Sunak in Belfast for Northern Ireland Protocol talks with Stormont leaders

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is in Belfast to meet local political parties amid speculation a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol could soon be struck.

Sources suggest a deal could be reached as early as next week on the region's post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Mr Sunak will meet local party leaders on Friday morning before heading on to Germany to meet EU leaders.

His Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, will be in Brussels on Friday to meet the European Commission.

Mr Cleverly will meet European Commission Vice-President Marcos Sefcovic, the Foreign Office confirmed, saying it was part of "ongoing engagement and constructive dialogue with the EU to find practical solutions that work for the people of Northern Ireland".

The Northern Ireland Protocol is the trade deal that was agreed to ensure the free movement of goods across the Irish land border after Brexit.

It is at the heart of a political impasse in Northern Ireland, with unionist parties arguing that placing an effective trade border across the Irish Sea undermines the region's place within the UK.

The largest of those parties is the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which refuses to take part in Northern Ireland's power-sharing government - introduced in the 1990s as a way of ending decades of violence - unless its concerns are resolved.

Even though the DUP came second in May 2022 elections to Sinn Féin - a republican party that accepts the protocol - a new Northern Ireland government cannot be formed without its support.

The DUP has said it must be satisfied with any settlement before it agrees to return to power-sharing.

But the deal has split political opinion and the UK and the EU have been in lengthy negotiations about making changes to how it operates.

Ahead of Mr Sunak's visit, No 10 said: "Whilst talks with the EU are ongoing ministers continue to engage with relevant stakeholders to ensure any solution fixes the practical problems on the ground, meets our overarching objectives and safeguards Northern Ireland's place in the UK's internal market.

"The prime minister... [is] travelling to Northern Ireland this evening to speak to political parties as part of this engagement process."

After the meetings in Belfast the prime minister will travel to Munich for a security summit.

Mr Sunak will head to Munich later

However, the prime minister's efforts to reach a deal on the protocol have exposed tensions within his Conservative Party.

Former Brexit Minister Lord Frost told the Telegraph that a "feeble deal now" would "make things worse not better", adding that "no deal is still better than a bad one".

David Jones, deputy chairman of the European Research Group - a Eurosceptic group of Tory MPs - tweeted that Northern Ireland "must cease to be subject to laws made in Brussels". "It's as simple as that," he said. "Anything less won't work."

Speaking on Thursday night, Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said the latest stages of the protocol talks had been "serious and substantive" and trust had been built between UK and EU negotiators.

"I've no doubt that the British prime minister, in advance of further discussions over the weekend and next week, wants to ascertain from the political parties in Northern Ireland a sense of the various positions that they have in relation to [the protocol]," he said.

The Northern Ireland Protocol was put in place as part of the post-Brexit deal agreed between the UK and the EU in December 2020.

It was required because Northern Ireland has a land border with the Republic of Ireland, which is an EU country.

It aims to ensure free movement of trade across the Irish land border by conducting checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain instead but it has been a source of tension since it came into force at the start of 2021.

Despite concerns among unionist parties, many members of the Northern Ireland Assembly are in favour of the protocol in some form remaining in place.

Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party and the SDLP have said improvements to the protocol are needed to ease its implementation.


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×