Vote for MPs on Windsor Framework by end of the month according to Secretary of State

Chris Heaton-Harris during a visit to a garden centre on the outskirts of Belfast Credit: UTV

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has suggested MPs will be able to vote on the Windsor Framework deal by the end of the month.

Mr Heaton-Harris was speaking during a visit to a garden centre on the outskirts of Belfast.

He told reporters: "There's some European processes that also are happening. So, the European Parliament have its say on this, I believe, next week, and then I think there's one more stage in the European political sphere for it to go through, so that'll be in the next two or three weeks.

"We will be having a vote in Parliament on a similar timetable."

Until now the government has not given a clear indication of a timeframe for a vote in parliament.

The Secretary of State is also the second significant person this week to have started to suggest a timeline of events ahead involving decisions on the Windsor Framework.

On Monday the DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson announced he was creating an eight person panel to help gather opinions across society in Northern Ireland on the new UK/ EU deal.

At the same time, Sir Jeffrey indicated that once the panel reported back to his party he expected the DUP to be in a position to give its decision on the deal "within the month".

Parliament is due to rise for the Easter break on the 30 March so the Secretary of State's comments point to a vote before then.

Mr Heaton-Harris also told reporters in Belfast the government was preparing to publish more details in the next few weeks about how the Stormont Brake would work.

It is a mechanism within the Windsor Framework to allow MLAs at Stormont to have a say in how EU rules apply in Northern Ireland.

The emerging timeline raises the question - depending on what the DUP says, whether the Stormont assembly and executive could return before Easter and the Good Friday Agreement 25 anniversary?

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