Brexit: NI Assembly to debate EU-UK trade deal

The Northern Ireland Assembly will return early from Christmas recess on Wednesday to debate the Brexit trade deal agreed between the UK and the EU.

MLAs will meet at 12:00 GMT after the speaker approved a request from the first and deputy first ministers.

The motion will not be legally binding but "takes note" of the trade deal.

The UK parliament is expected to vote on the deal on Wednesday, a day before the end of the Brexit transition period.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Alliance Party have all indicated their MPs will vote against the deal.

EU member states approved the EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement on Christmas Eve.

It means that from 1 January 2021, the UK can continue to sell goods to the EU market without facing tariffs or quotas.

It also mechanisms to address unfair competition.

• 10 things to look for in the Brexit deal

• What will happen in Northern Ireland after Brexit?

Rules pertaining to Northern Ireland are contained within the Northern Ireland protocol, which was designed to avoid a hardening of the border with the Republic of Ireland.

This agreement keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods, with EU customs rules being applied at Northern Ireland ports, including goods arriving from Great Britain.

However, these arrangements have been criticised by the DUP, which said its MPs will vote against the government's deal on Wednesday "as a point of principle".

"A free trade deal is better than no deal, but for Northern Ireland this deal does not undo the detrimental aspects of the [Northern Ireland] Protocol," a party statement explained.

Analysis by Enda McClafferty, BBC News NI Political Editor

Opening a "new chapter in our national story" is how the prime minister will pitch his post-Brexit trade deal to MPs today.

But for those on the Northern Ireland benches the reality will be very different.

For them it will be the same old story - sticking with the Brussels rule book when it comes to the EU Single Market for goods and customs codes.

Watching the rest of the UK "take back control" while Brussels will still be flexing its muscles here.

That is why the DUP's fingerprints will not be on the deal being fast tracked through Westminster on Wednesday.

This is not the version of Brexit they campaigned for in 2016, but it is the version they will have to live with.

The eight DUP MPs will be joined in the lobby rejecting the new deal by the SDLP and Alliance but for very different reasons

For the DUP, it fails to undo the damage of the Northern Ireland protocol, but for the other parties the deal fails to undo the damage of Brexit.

Just as predictable as the vote at Westminster will be the debate at Stormont.

For two hours MLAs across the floor will line up to reject the deal, safe in the knowledge that the greater threat of Brexit without a trade deal has now gone.

The last bill fast tracked in one day through Westminster was also heralded as the beginning of a new chapter

It paved the way for the new DUP/Sinn Fein led power sharing pact.

Thirteen years on the St Andrew's Agreement is still holding - but only just.

Alliance MP Stephen Farry said he had concerns that legislation for the bill was being published "at the eleventh hour".

He added he would not "blindly wave this through".

On Tuesday, SDLP leader and Foyle MP Colum Eastwood, said it was a "thin deal" which his party will oppose.

He added the SDLP will not "support this form of Brexit or any other form of Brexit".

'Reaffirm our opposition'

In January, the assembly passed a motion withholding consent for the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

Sinn Féin's chief whip at Stormont, John O'Dowd, said it was right that MLAs be recalled on Wednesday.

He said this would be to "reaffirm our opposition to Brexit and reiterate our call for the full implementation".

"We think it's vitally important that the voices of workers, businesses and families in the area most affected by Brexit is heard," added Mr O'Dowd.