Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson has highlighted that the problems with the Government’s draft EU Withdrawal Agreement stem from tactical blunders made throughout the negotiating process.

Jim Nicholson MEP said:

“We are in this mess today largely because of two major decisions that were taken by the UK Government - including Boris Johnson and David Davis - while being propped up by the DUP, during this negotiation process.

“The first is agreeing to the EU’s sequencing. When David Davis was leading these negotiations he rolled over and accepted the EU’s agenda for talks - that the money, citizens’ rights and UK - Republic of Ireland border issues had to be settled before the future relationship could be agreed.

“This has now led us to a situation whereby all the EU’s key demands could soon be agreed in a legally binding international treaty. By contrast, UK asks by and large are in the political declaration which has no legal basis, and can only be agreed once we have left the EU and lost any leverage we currently have.

“The second mistake came with the infamous agreement on the backstop that was pulled together in December 2017. Boris Johnson was Foreign Secretary at that time and David Davis was Brexit Secretary when that fudge was agreed. The DUP boasted that it had eliminated the possibility of an Irish Sea border. The EU took another view, and we can see very clearly today who won that argument.

“Unionists across the UK need to come together and urge the Government to ensure that this Withdrawal Agreement is replaced with more acceptable terms for exiting the EU, but at the same time, a bit of humility from those who got us into this mess wouldn’t go amiss.”