London, Thanasis Gavos

Rishi Sunak’s government has passed the first parliamentary hurdle in the process of adopting the ‘Windsor Framework’, the new agreement for the N. Ireland in its context Brexit which the British Prime Minister reached with the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

MPs voted 515 to 29 on the so-called ‘Stormond Brake’, the new measure which allows Northern Ireland’s local parliament to reject new EU legislation relating to Northern Irish affairs.

If this “brake” is activated in Stormond, the British government will be able to veto the application of Community legislation in Northern Ireland.

The government won the vote comfortably due to support from opposition parties, despite rejection of the deal by Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and a section of Conservative MPs from the ruling party’s more Eurosceptic wing.

The new deal was opposed by former prime ministers Liz Truss and Boris Johnson, who voted in a break from a marathon appearance before the House of Commons Immunity Committee to defend himself against an allegation that he knowingly misled the body about partygate.