Negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union are said to be progressing towards a new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland. A source from No 10 has described the talks as

"positive". Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has also stated that while a deal has not yet been reached on the protocol, progress is being made towards a conclusion. The BBC has reported that plans for a meeting between King Charles and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, were cancelled due to operational reasons unrelated to the ongoing political negotiations. While the meeting was not directly linked to the negotiations, the fact that it was planned has led to speculation that a Brexit deal was close to being finalised and publicly announced. The Northern Ireland Protocol, which was agreed under former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and came into effect in 2021, allowed Northern Ireland to continue following some EU laws to avoid the need for border checks with the Republic of Ireland.

It has been suggested that the new deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol, believed to be almost complete, could be named the Windsor Agreement and could involve a public moment with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and von der Leyen. Mr Sunak and von der Leyen spoke by telephone on Friday, and a Downing Street source confirmed that the talks had been "positive" and that negotiations would continue. Both the UK and the EU are coordinating their diaries to ensure that an announcement can be made at a mutually convenient time and place. The possibility of an agreement in the coming days has been acknowledged by Mr Varadkar, but he also noted that there is still a gap to be closed. He urged the UK government, European Commission, and Northern Ireland parties to "go the extra mile" to reach an agreement, emphasising that the benefits would be significant.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has cancelled a planned trip to the Middle East at the beginning of next week, raising expectations that a formal announcement from the UK and Brussels could be imminent. However, there have been delays in recent days due to wrangling between No 10, the Democratic Unionist Party, and Conservative backbenchers. The prime minister has been attempting to win support for changes to the protocol, which has been a controversial issue since it was agreed upon. Photo by ChiralJon, Wikimedia commons.