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N Ireland’s DUP MPs to vote against new Brexit deal

The Democratic Unionist Party will vote against the government in this week’s first parliamentary vote on a Brexit deal, party leader Jeffrey Donaldson says.

March 21, 2023
By AAP
21 March 2023

Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson says its members of the United Kingdom parliament will vote against a central element of the government’s deal with the European Union on post-Brexit trade rules later this week.

Parliament will on Wednesday debate and vote on the so-called “Stormont brake,” a key part of an agreement that enables the UK to stop new EU laws from applying to goods in Northern Ireland if so requested by a third of MPs in the province’s devolved legislature.

“Whilst representing real progress the ‘brake’ does not deal with the fundamental issue which is the imposition of EU law by the Protocol,” Donaldson said in a statement.

“Our party officers… met this morning and unanimously agreed that in the context of our ongoing concerns and the need to see further progress secured whilst continuing to seek clarification, change and re-working that our Members of Parliament would vote against the draft statutory instrument.”

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