Boris Johnson and Liz Truss join the Tories’ revolt over the Brexit deal

MPs have approved Rishi Sunak’s new Brexit deal in Northern Ireland, despite some 20 MPs rebelling.

Former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were among the Conservatives who joined Northern Ireland’s DUP in voting against the agreement.

But it passed 515 to 29 overall, with the support of the other Conservatives, Labor and the SNP.

The deal, unveiled last month, rewrites the Brexit agreement Johnson agreed to in 2019.

Northern Ireland Minister Steve Baker denounced the two former prime ministers for their opposition, saying he believed “both are better than this”.

Baker, who supported the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union in 2016, added that Johnson risked “looking like Nigel Farage’s sterling shopkeeper” by voting against the deal.

Former Brexit leader Nigel Farage hit back on Twitter, saying Baker had betrayed his Brexit plan credentials and was a “weasel” to support the deal.

Marc-François, chair of the Eurosceptic Conservative ERG, had earlier confirmed that its “strong recommendation” was for Tory MPs to defy party directors’ orders and reject the deal.

A vote on a key part of the deal, known as the Stormont Brakes, which would give a future Northern Ireland Assembly a way to challenge new EU goods legislation.

The vote is likely to be the only vote MPs get on Sunak’s renegotiated deal, known as the Windsor Framework.

The original Brexit deal negotiated by Johnson introduced a series of checks on goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, in order to avoid a border with the Republic of Ireland.

Although the agreement was originally described as “a great deal for our country”, Johnson went on to join the Brexiteers in bemoaning the economic impact of the checks he entered.

The changes Mr Sunak negotiated are aimed at streamlining the monitoring process, which has also proven deeply unpopular among Northern Ireland unionists.

Speaking during a debate in the House of Commons, Northern Ireland Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said Stormont’s brakes would give Northern Ireland assembly members “strong” powers to challenge EU laws.

But in an earlier statement, Johnson said it was “unacceptable”.

“The proposed arrangements either meant that Northern Ireland remained occupied by the EU legal order – and was increasingly differentiated from the rest of the UK – or it meant that the whole of the UK was not able to properly disagree and benefit from Brexit,” he added. .

He said it would be better to move forward with controversial legislation giving British ministers the power to override the original deal, which Sunak has delayed because of his new deal.

Ms Truss is also said to believe the new framework has a “fatal impact” on the UK’s ability to break away from EU rules.

DUP leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson said he would continue to work with the government on “outstanding issues” – although Downing Street said there were no plans for any substantive change to the deal.

Stormont’s brakes were criticized by the European Research Group (ERG) of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs, with legal experts advising them “practically useless”.