British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will brief political parties in Belfast this morning about a deal that has been reached between the British Government and the EU over the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol.
The UK Government is confident that the agreement reached between London and Brussels will be sufficient to satisfy the concerns of the DUP which says the Protocol isolates Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
If the DUP reject the deal, the Stormont Parliament could be closed indefinitely. Professor Jon Tonge of Liverpool University says the focus now will be on whether or not the DUP's seven demands have been met by the deal.
"Rishi Sunak is confident that all seven DUP tests have been met," he said. "That is going to be mighty difficult, one for example is that there will be no border in the Irish Sea but clearly there will still be a border. On the other hand the DUP could claim that the EU has moved substantially and that there will now be no checks on goods going between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The DUP has got quite a lot of what it wanted but there will be some in the DUP who will say this is simply not good enough."
