A Brexit deal to fix the Northern Ireland protocol is set to be agreed as soon as Monday after Rishi Sunak said he was "giving it everything" to get an agreement over the line.
But he was immediately warned by his own party that he faces a massive rebellion unless the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) agrees to back him.
That would mean "expunging" the jurisdiction of EU courts in Northern Ireland completely - a scenario which is seen as near impossible - or Mr Sunak facing civil war with up to 50 Tory MPs.
The Prime Minister this evening issued a brief joint statement with European Commission President Ursula von de Leyen.
They said: "Today we agreed to continue our work in person towards shared, practical solutions for the range of complex challenges around the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland."
President von der Leyen is to meet with the Prime Minister again in the UK tomorrow.
The DUP is refusing to take part in Stormont’s cross-community devolved government alongside Sinn Fein in protest at the impact the Brexit treaty is having on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The party has issued seven tests that Mr Sunak’s pact will have to meet in order to win its backing, including addressing what it calls the “democratic deficit” of Northern Ireland being subject to EU rules while not having a say on them.
Mr Sunak pledged that “anything that we do will tick all of those boxes” in terms of Unionist concerns.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his party are set to oppose the deal
Rebecca Black
Labour has indicated it will back the deal. Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “I hope now that all of us can come together and vote through any deal, and get back to Stormont, underpinned by the Good Friday Agreement, and move on from this episode that has now gone on for many years indeed.”
But both the DUP and the Tory ERG look set to oppose it unless the issue of the supremacy of EU law is finally resolved.
ERG chairman Mark Francois has said “less of a role” for the European Court of Justice is not “good enough” as he insisted “we are not stupid”.
The Conservative former minister told Sky News: “Less of a role is not enough. Just putting a couple of intermediate phases in but in a situation where you still end up with the European Court of Justice is effectively sophistry. I mean, we’re not stupid.
“What we want is a situation where EU law is expunged from Northern Ireland, so it is treated on the same basis as England, Scotland and Wales.”
Asked whether he would therefore not back any deal if the ECJ has any role in it, he said: “We have left the European Union. It doesn’t have that role now in England or in Scotland or in Wales.
“So, if we’re going to treat Northern Ireland as an integral part of the United Kingdom, then we have to get rid of the EU law in Northern Ireland. We’ve been absolutely consistent on this.”
A protocol deal has looked close to being announced for almost a week. And after No 10 said “good progress” was made during a Friday call between the Prime Minister and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, a breakthrough seemed imminent.
However, a plan for Ms von der Leyen to travel to Britain on Saturday to meet Mr Sunak and then have afternoon tea with the King at Windsor Castle was scrapped on Friday evening. Downing Street has since said that “intensive” discussions remain underway between London and Brussels.
Irish premier Leo Varadkar said that talks between the UK and the EU were “inching towards conclusion” as he called on all sides to “go the extra mile” to sign off on negotiations.
The Prime Minister told The Sunday Times that he was continuing to push for a final agreement with the bloc.
“I’m here all weekend trying to get it done,” he told the newspaper. “We’re giving it everything we’ve got.”
He admitted that there were examples of “where it feels that Northern Ireland is not part of the Union” and that the protocol had “unbalanced” the Good Friday Agreement that helped end the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Citing the example of not being able to apply reforms to alcohol duty in Northern Ireland when he was chancellor – as the protocol dictates that it falls under EU single market rules for duties – Mr Sunak pledged to work to satisfy Unionist demands with any deal he secures.
“I’m a Conservative, I’m a Brexiteer and I’m a unionist and anything that we do will tick all of those boxes, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense to me, let alone anyone else."
Several reports have suggested a deal between the UK and the EU is all but done – with Mr Sunak delaying an announcement until he is confident it will be accepted.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is said to have agreed the deal
European Commission
No 10 denies that but reports suggest Mr Sunak has secured concessions that will ease the flow of trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain — a major bugbear for Unionists.
Trusted traders from GB into Northern Ireland will reportedly not need to undergo checks as part of the plans, while VAT rates, taxes and state aid policy will all be set by Westminster rather than Brussels as part of the offer on the table.
The Prime Minister has also reportedly negotiated a means by which the Northern Ireland Assembly in Belfast will be given pre-legislative scrutiny over new EU laws in a bid to remove the so-called “democratic deficit”.
Mr Sunak will invite Cabinet ministers into No 10 on Sunday to brief them on the details of what he has secured so far.
Downing Street will be anxiously waiting for Boris Johnson’s view on the new terms, with the former prime minister recently imploring Mr Sunak not to drop his Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which would unilaterally overwrite parts of the treaty.
Mr Johnson, called to back what Mr Sunak comes back with in order to appease the White House, replied saying: “F*** the Americans.”
A source close to Mr Johnson said: “This was a jocular conversation in the chamber that someone evidently misunderstood.
“That is not the sort of language he would use.”
Fresh speculation about a new pact comes after Downing Street came in for criticism for the proposed meeting between EU leader Ms von der Leyen and the King. It is said that No 10 envisaged branding Mr Sunak’s deal the “Windsor Agreement” if the German politician had been content to sign off on a deal while in Britain.
Sammy Wilson, a DUP MP, accused the Prime Minister of “dragging the King into a hugely controversial political issue”.
A UK Government source said it would not have been improper for the King to have met a visiting European leader.
The source said it was “wrong to suggest the King would be involved in anything remotely political”. Buckingham Palace would not comment.