London, UK: The Prime Minister’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Brussels over the Northern Ireland Protocol have put Mr. Rishi Sunak and Mr. Boris Johnson at odds.

The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which provides ministers with the authority to rip up portions of the protocol and disregard EU standards, is being abandoned by Mr. Sunak, and the former Prime Minister is vehemently opposed to this.

Senior government sources indicated that if a settlement is reached on the protocol, the measure that Mr. Johnson sponsored while he was prime minister would be unnecessary. Several pro-Brexit Conservative MPs have also warned of a big Tory uprising if Mr. Sunak’s plan maintains a role for the European Court of Justice in addition to the probable mutiny by the former PM.

The House of Lords is currently considering Mr. Johnson’s legislation, which would deprive the ECJ of any jurisdiction over Northern Ireland and is likely to be subject to modifications from anti-Brexit peers. According to Sir James Duddridge, a former minister for Brexit and Mr. Johnson’s top ally, there may be as many as 100 Tory MPs willing to defect.

However, a significant Tory revolt against a protocol agreement would be unlikely to put it to death because Sir Keir Starmer has made it clear that Labour is ready to support an agreement. When asked earlier about the protocol conversations he had with EU leaders and the political parties in Northern Ireland in Munich, Mr. Sunak replied that “There is still work to do.”

“There are still challenges to work through. We have not resolved all these issues. No, there isn’t a deal that has been done, there is an understanding of what needs to be done. We’re working through the issues hard and we will work through them intensely with the EU, but we are by no means done,” 

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