Rishi Sunak has been dealt a fresh blow after Tory Brexiteers slammed his Windsor Framework deal with the EU.
The European Research Group (ERG) said a key part of the agreement was “practically useless”.
Crucially, they also said it will leave EU law still “supreme” in Northern Ireland and also undermined the nation’s place in the UK.
The damning verdict of the ERG’s “star chamber” comes just a day after the DUP announced that they will oppose the deal in a crunch Commons vote tomorrow.
Although the ERG do not say how they will vote tomorrow, it seems highly likely that they will join the DUP in voting against it.
The deal, which Sunak struck with European Commission president Ursula don der Leyen last month, will replace the Northern Ireland Protocol negotiated by Boris Johnson when he was prime minister.
The PM said it would remove the customs border which currently exists in the Irish Sea by introducing a “green lane” for goods travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland.
He also claimed a so-called “Stormont brake” would allow the UK government to veto fresh EU laws from being imposed on Northern Ireland.
But in their 58-page legal paper this morning, the ERG said that was not true.
ERG Chairman Mark Francois said: “The star chamber’s principal findings are: That EU law will still be supreme in Northern Ireland; the rights of its people under the 1800 Act of Union are not restored; the ‘green lane’ is not really a ‘green lane’ at all; the Stormont Brake is practically useless and the framework itself, has no exit, other than through a highly complex legal process.”
The report said: “We regret that the Windsor deal does not advance the post-Brexit sovereignty of the United Kingdom.
“It leaves intact the basic structure of the Northern Ireland Protocol, under which foreign laws interpreted and enforced by a foreign court will continue to apply to and within Northern Ireland.”
On the Stormont brake, it said: “The ‘brake’ is of very narrow application in theory and is likely to be useless in practice.”
The ERG and DUP’s opposition will not be enough to defeat the government tomorrow as Labour has already said it will vote for the deal.
However, it could potentially store up major problems between the PM and his backbenchers in the months ahead.