- By Joshua Nevett and Paul Seddon
- BBC Politics
Rishi Sunak’s new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland has been passed by MPs, despite a rebellion from 22 of his backbenchers.
Former PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were among the Tories who joined Northern Ireland’s DUP in voting against the deal.
But it passed 515 to 29 overall, with the support of the rest of the Tories, Labor and the SNP.
The deal, announced last month, rewrites the Brexit accord agreed by Mr Johnson in 2019.
Northern Ireland Minister Steve Baker slammed the two former PMs for opposing it, saying he thought they were “both better than this”.
Mr Johnson risks “looking like a pound shop Nigel Farage” by voting against the deal, added Mr Baker, who backed the UK’s exit from the EU in 2016.
Former Brexit leader Nigel Farage fired back on Twitter, saying Mr Baker had betrayed his Brexiteer credentials and was a “weasel” for supporting the deal.
Mark Francois, the chairman of the Eurosceptic Tories’ ERG group, previously confirmed that its “strong recommendation” was for Tory MPs to defy orders from party leaders and reject the deal.
As well as Mr Johnson and Ms Truss, Tory MPs who voted against the deal included former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg.
The vote is on a key part of the deal, known as the Stormont brake, which will give the future Northern Ireland Assembly a way to challenge the new EU trade law.
The vote is likely to be the only vote MPs will get on Mr Sunak’s renegotiated deal, known as the Windsor Framework.
Don’t be a “pound shop Farage,” the minister told Johnson
About 100 MPs did not take part in the vote. This number includes those who abstained, including those who did not vote for other reasons or were given permission not to.
The original Brexit withdrawal deal negotiated by Mr Johnson introduced a series of checks on goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, to avoid a border with the Irish Republic.
Despite originally billing the deal as a “great deal for our country”, Mr Johnson went on to join Tory Brexiters in bemoaning the economic impact of the checks it introduced.
The changes discussed by Mr Sunak are aimed at streamlining the reviews process, which has also proved unpopular with unionists in Northern Ireland.
Speaking in the Commons, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the Stormont brake would give members of the assembly in Northern Ireland “robust” powers to challenge EU laws.
But in a statement released ahead of the vote, Mr Johnson said it was “unacceptable”.
“The proposed arrangements would mean that Northern Ireland remains caught up in the EU’s legal mandate – and becomes increasingly divergent from the rest of the UK – or it would mean that the whole of the UK could not properly secede and take advantage of Brexit,” he added.
He said it would be better to go ahead with controversial legislation that gives British ministers the power to override the original deal, which Mr Sunak has put on hold because of his new deal.
Ms Truss is also said to believe the new framework is “fatal” to the UK’s ability to deviate from EU rules.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he would continue to work with the government on “outstanding issues” – although Downing Street said there were no plans for any major changes to the deal.
Eurosceptic Tory MPs’ European Research Group (ERG) has criticized the Stormont brake, with legal experts advising them it is “virtually useless”.