with permission, mr speaker, i would like to make a seven on the northern ireland protocol. after weeks of negotiations, today we have made a decisive breakthrough. the windsor framework delivers free floating trade within the whole night kingdom. it protects northern ireland s place in our union and it safeguards sovereignty for the people of northern ireland. by achieving all this, it preserves the delicate balance inherent in the belfast good friday agreement. mr speaker, does what many said could not be done. removing thousands of pages of eu laws and making permanent weekly binding changes to the protocol treaty itself. that is the protocol treaty itself. that is the breakthrough we have made, those are the changes we will deliver, now is the time to move forward as one united kingdom. mr speaker, before i turn to the details, let us remind ourselves why this matters. it matters because at the heart of the belfast good friday agreement and the reason it has endured for a
i m ben brown in the studio our other top stories this hour... as the regulator ofgem lowers the price cap for gas and electricity, there are fresh calls for the government to stop a rise in energy bills in april. a new panorama investigation uncovers evidence that women are being misled and manipulated about abortion by some crisis pregnancy advice centres,in the uk. the first female speaker of the house of commons, betty boothroyd, dies at the age of 93. good afternoon from windsor, where rishi sunak and the eu have struck a new agreement to amend post brexit trading rules with the eu. the prime minister said the deal marked a decisive breakthrough after years of wrangling, allowing smooth, free flowing trade while preserving the belfast agreement, the setttlement which underpins devolved government in northern ireland. mr sunak said the agreement would remove any sense of a border in the irish sea, the chief complaint of unionists who have boycotted stormont in prote
from our colleagues in brussels, at westminster and in belfast. we ll also be asking if this will be enough to satisfy the democratic unionists and to break the political deadlock in northern ireland. also tonight. the cap on household energy charges is being reduced, but bills are still going to rise in april. we ll be asking why that is. i think it is time that members of this house grew up. and, the woman who made history as the first female speaker of the commons, betty boothroyd, has died at the age of 93. and coming up on the bbc news channel. lionesses is boss sarina wiegmann is amongst the winners at the star studded fifa best awards in paris. good evening. three years after the united kingdom left the european union, rishi sunak says he s now resolved the major dispute over trading arrangements between great britain and northern ireland. the prime minister and the president of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, met at windsor today, where they declared a