DUP leader meets with ERG as Rees-Mogg fires warning

On Tuesday night, Sir Jeffrey briefed members of the Tory Eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG) at Westminster on his talks last week with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

In a separate development, prominent Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg accused the PM of imitating Theresa May's doomed Brexit strategy as Tory Eurosceptics were urged to allow the "time and space" needed to fix the protocol difficulties.

Mr Rees-Mogg questioned why "so much political capital" was being spent on brokering a new deal without ensuring the DUP and his wing of the Conservative Party were on board.

Speaking following his meeting with the ERG, Sir Jeffrey said that he is encouraged by the progress that has been made so far in the discussions between the UK Government and the EU.

However, the DUP leader said that Brussels needed to accept that goods traded within Northern Ireland were subject to UK laws and standards, and not those of the EU, if there was to be an agreement his party could support.

“It is possible given the level of progress that has been made and the principles that have already, I’m told, been agreed the outstanding issues could be resolved within the next few days,” he said.

“In judging the progress I believe has been made so far, I think lines have been crossed. Therefore, that suggests to me there is the potential to resolve this issue.

“We can’t have a situation where business in Northern Ireland are able to bring goods in from Great Britain and sell them as UK standard products, and make the same product themselves in Northern Ireland but they are required to make them to EU standards. That is not acceptable.”

The warning from Mr Rees-Mogg came after Downing Street said a "number of unresolved issues" were outstanding as Foreign Secretary James Cleverly was holding fresh talks with the EU's Maros Sefcovic.

Health minister Maria Caulfield, a Brexiteer who quit Theresa May's frontbench over her Chequers plan, urged colleagues to "support the Prime Minister".

She told Times Radio: "There isn't a deal done yet so all these rumours about ministers or MPs not being happy, I haven't seen the details, we have to give the Prime Minister that time and space to get these negotiations done.

"We need to give him the time and space to thrash out the final elements of any final deal."

But Mr Rees-Mogg, a former Cabinet minister and long-term critic of Mr Sunak, criticised his tactics as similar to those that eventually led to the resignation of Mrs May as PM.

He joined Boris Johnson in urging Mr Sunak to press ahead with the controversial NI Protocol Bill, effectively ripping up parts of the agreement with Brussels, rather than seeking a deal which may not guarantee the return of a powersharing executive in Stormont.

On his ConservativeHome podcast, Mr Rees-Mogg said: "There seems to me to be no point in agreeing a deal that does not restore power-sharing.

"That must be the objective. If it doesn't achieve that objective, I don't understand why the Government is spending political capital on something that won't ultimately succeed."

He said the Bill has the support of "the person who had a mandate from the British voters" – Mr Johnson – and he said Mr Sunak should first get the approval of the ERG.

"I don't know why so much political capital has been spent on something without getting the DUP and the ERG onside first," Mr Rees-Mogg said.

It was "very similar to what happened with Theresa May" where a policy would be presented in the hope that people would "conveniently fall in behind" it, he said.

"Life doesn't work like that. It's important to get support for it first before you finalise the details and that doesn't seem to have been done here."

Government insiders still believe a deal between the UK and the EU could be struck in the coming days, but acknowledged it would slip to next week if not concluded by the one-year anniversary of the Ukrainian conflict on Friday.