Claire Dickson

What is the Windsor Framework?

The Windsor Framework is a post-Brexit deal which has been signed off on by the British government and the European Union. The deal is based around the NI Protocol and aims to rectify issues surrounding the movement of goods between the EU Single Market and the UK, making trade between NI and the rest of the UK easier. A new ‘Stormont brake’ mechanism means that 30 members of the Assembly from at least two political parties will be able to object to the application of some updated EU laws which would have automatically applied under the existing Northern Ireland Protocol.

Party Reaction

The Democratic Unionist Party’s MPs at Westminster voted against the new deal with their leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson commenting that the Windsor Framework “won’t work” and that “there is in the Windsor Framework an element of the sticking plaster.” Rishi Sunak has been keen to get the DUP’s approval on any attempt at Protocol resolve as they walked out of power-sharing institutions last year in protest of its keeping Northern Ireland in line with EU regulations on goods.

However, other parties have opposed the DUP’s voting against the Windsor Framework with Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie stating that “in order to realise the opportunities and challenge the multiple issues then we need a functioning devolved government.” Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Colum Eastwood called for “political courage” after announcing his backing of the Windsor Framework and said that the benefits of it outweigh his party’s concerns about how the Stormont brake would work in practice. These comments come as Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister told attendees of his recent party conference that the Windsor Framework is “worse than the protocol.”

What’s next?

The NI Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has warned the DUP that the Windsor Framework will not be renegotiated despite the party’s demand for change. With the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement which set up power sharing in Northern Ireland taking place next month, decisions made by the DUP with regards to re-entering of institutions will dictate power-sharing’s immediate if not more long-term future. With council elections looming in May of this year, the DUP will want to tread a fine line between avoiding any internal split whilst appealing to the unionist electorate, only 15 percent of whom oppose the Framework according to a recent survey.

Claire Dickson is Deputy Head of The Scoop and a Politics student at Queen’s University Belfast

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