Brexit: DUP will vote against government plans

The DUP will vote against the government’s Brexit plans in a vote in parliament on Wednesday.

But the party’s leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, said he would continue to work with the government to address “outstanding issues”.

The Windsor Framework, builds on the Northern Ireland Protocol, which led to significant disagreements between the UK and European Union (EU).

Sir Jeffrey said party officers had met on Monday morning to discuss the vote.

They had “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 on Wednesday”.

He said the party’s view was that there “remain key areas of concern which require further clarification, re-working and change as well as seeing further legal text”.

More details of how the so-called “Stormont brake” aspect of the new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland will work are due to be published later on Monday.

The brake aims to give politicians in the Stormont assembly a greater say on how EU laws apply to Northern Ireland.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the mechanism is proof that the UK has “taken back control” in the agreement he struck with the EU last month.

MPs will be given a chance to vote on the measure in Parliament on Wednesday.