British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak may want to open up existing agreements with Northern Ireland to reach a deal with the European Union. It writes Bloomberg. Previously, Great Britain was still strongly opposed to changing the agreement.

The leader of the Democratic Union Party, Jeffrey Donaldson, called it “unacceptable” in the British House of Commons today for European legislation to be passed in Northern Ireland without prior mutual consent.

Read also | Sunak: ‘Progress around Northern Ireland’

He then asked Sunak if the UK Prime Minister could assure him that these constitutional issues would be addressed, “and not just by adjusting the Brexit protocol a bit,” Donaldson said. “But by rewriting the entire binding agreement.”

‘loud and clear’

Sunak said he understood the question “loud and clear”, and that he had asked policy makers about the contingencies around the constitutional and legal framework under which the Northern Ireland Protocol existed. He wants to change that. “This is an important part of negotiations with the European Union,” said Sunak, who declined to go into details.

Read also | The UK’s budget deficit is £8 billion

That Sunak is up to the challenge could be called an understatement. Government representatives from the UK and the EU have indicated that the existing Brexit agreement will not be modified in any way if a deal is reached. Instead, it makes more sense for the UK and the EU to amend their own laws to implement the possible new Northern Ireland protocol.