in the dark as to whether mps will get a vote on the deal, but if they do, labour is signalling potential support for the prime minister. if he s able to pull off a deal, we will support it because we think it will be an improvement on what we ve got at the moment. let s look at the detail in the coming days but all credit to rishi sunak if he does that. a deal with the eu might ease some of the economic pressures on businesses and communities in northern ireland but it political problems. iain watson, bbc news. at least 59 people have drowned after their boat broke up in rough seas and sank off the southern coast of italy including a number of children. the boat was said to be overloaded with close to 150 people. it s thought the vessel left izmir in eastern turkey three days ago. those who did survive came ashore near the town of crotone on the calabrian coast and are being helped by the red cross. john donnison has the latest. overnight, another tragedy in the mediterranean.
there are three reasons for it. one is it allows a reset of the uk s relationship with the eu, so at the extreme end, he avoids the risk of a trade war, but even if things don t go that far, he gets a lot of benefits from resetting relations and unfreezing a lot of cooperation, for example, on universities, on financial services, on lots of aspects of trade that will help the uk economy. secondly, it offers a reset on relations with the us and washington, which have been it may be a bit less deep frozen but still chilly since the two this spat with the eu on the northern ireland protocol, when it really began. thirdly, it offers a path back to devolved power sharing government in northern ireland because the prime minister can show, you know, we ve reached a deal with the eu, we have tried to address the unionist concerns, even if not as fully as
any future eu laws, to see if that is really delivered right in the depths of the text. if they don t like it then in effect he will only have done half the job. he will have got the eu on board, power sharing will not be restored to northern ireland, which is potentially embarrassing because obviously the american president, joe biden, would like to visit on the 25th anniversary of the good friday agreement later this year. that s coming up very soon, isn t it? in terms of the objections of the dup, where are they likely to hinge and what price might they extract in order to back it? i think the problem the dup had, amongst many others, was notjust the trading arrangements, but they were effectively saying that the act of union which brought ireland as a whole, once upon a time, in the 1800s, into the united kingdom, said that everyone in the united kingdom should be treated on an equal footing. they are saying that people in northern ireland are subjected to eu laws despite brexit, w
correspondent, jessica parker, from brussels to discuss the possibility of a deal announcement soon. . i think there s a lot of clues. clue number one is that we have known through sources for a little while now that the plan was for ursula von der leyen to head to the uk to do the final sign off moment. so, obviously, she is now heading to the uk. she ll be in berkshire tomorrow to meet with the prime minister, rishi sunak. and of course we ve been building towards this now we ve been hearing from multiple people who have knowledge of the talks that they were slowly getting there. downing street, all the while, have been saying no final deal is yet done. the statement we ve had tonight doesn t say a final deal is yet done, but i think it d be pretty strange if ursula von der leyen, the european commission president, so a real eu chief here, was to go all the way to the united kingdom to meet with rishi sunak, to talk about the northern ireland protocol at this stage and not announce a
earlier, the deputy prime minister dominic raab began to outline what might be in the deal, including the right for politicians in northern ireland to have a say over any new eu rules that affect them. with more here s our political correspondent iain watson. what better way to flag that an agreement with the eu is coming closer? the eu commission president ursula von der leyen will meet the prime minister tomorrow in london for the talks that could seal a deal. there is no deal done until the whole deal is done. but i think we ve made progress. and what s emerging is exactly what the deal could involve. post brexit, to keep an open border on the island of ireland, some eu rules continue to apply in northern ireland, and goods coming from great britain are subject to checks. this is what unionists call a border in the irish sea. under the proposed deal it s likely goods travelling from great britain to northern ireland and remaining there would no longer be subject to checks. these wou