DUP plays down UK and EU signing Windsor Framework into law today –  'International laws are replaced by further agreements when not fit for purpose'

Rishi Sunak’s Brexit deal for Northern Ireland will be formally signed off today at an official meeting in London, amid hopes that better UK-EU relations can see benefits in other areas.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and the European Commission’s Maros Sefcovic will together chair a meeting that will see the UK and the EU formally adopt the new arrangements for Northern Ireland, after the Government won the backing of MPs for the Windsor Framework earlier this week.

However, the DUP’s East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell has said the Secretary of State needs to come to terms with the requirement for cross community support.

“This Secretary of State is infamous for definitive statements,” he said. “Previously he had informed the world of his absolute determination to call an Assembly election at the very minute legislation required him to do so. That time stricture passed as quickly as his determination.

"He also trumpets that the Windsor deal will be ratified by the joint UK-EU body which meets today and then it becomes International law, as if this changes anything. How many Agreements and Deals have become 'International law' only to be replaced by further Deals and Agreements that had to be implemented because there was a realisation that the earlier models were not fit for purpose?

“Chris Heaton-Harris will have to “come to terms” with the reality for all of us who actually live here, that whatever about agreements, laws and deals that come and go, politics and governance in Northern Ireland only works when there is a cross community political consensus.

“This Government’s large vote this week, endorsed today by the Joint Committee, no doubt to be further endorsed when President Biden visits, none of that will move us one inch closer to getting that cross community political consensus which is necessary. That is the unchanging reality that he has to come to terms with.

“Progress is only made when powersharing works with the support of unionists and nationalists.”