No alternative to Windsor Framework, says government

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and other unionist parties have argued a simple majority vote creates a democratic deficit as the concerns of unionists who are in the minority at Stormont can be ignored.

In a statement last week, DUP leader Gavin Robinson said it had been “deliberately designed to drive a coach and horse through the cross-community consent principle, which has been at the very heart of all political progress in Northern Ireland”.

If the vote is carried without cross-community support, the government has committed to ordering an independent review of the post-Brexit arrangements and their implications.

The framework is an amended version of Northern Ireland’s original Brexit deal, the Protocol.

It creates a trade border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as the way to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.