King Charles III will have tea with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday during her visit to the U.K. to unveil an enhanced Brexit deal, a Buckingham Palace source told The Daily Beast.
The English monarch’s meeting with von der Leyen at Windsor Castle has triggered furious backlash from critics alarmed by Charles’ perceived intrusion into political matters. “The King is pleased to meet any world leader if they are visiting Britain and it is the Government’s advice that he should do so,” the palace source said.
At a joint news conference on Monday afternoon, Von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed a “decisive breakthrough” on a new post-Brexit deal for Northern Ireland.
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Part of the Brexit deal agreed by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson known as the Northern Ireland Protocol has created constitutional chaos ever since the U.K. left the European Union. The protocol dictates trade arrangements for how goods move between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K., with some EU laws still followed by Northern Ireland in order to allow goods to move over the border into the Republic of Ireland without checks.
But goods arriving into Northern Ireland from Britain are subject to checks under the protocol’s rules—a policy that has angered critics in Northern Ireland who argue it undermines their country’s place in the U.K. The Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has even blocked the formation of a power-sharing government as a result, creating political deadlock.
In announcing the new deal, Sunak said his new deal—called the “Windsor Framework”—would protect “Northern Ireland’s place in the Union.” Von der Leyen in turn said the agreement would “benefit people in Northern Ireland and support all communities celebrating peace on the island of Ireland,” the BBC reports.
Sunak also confirmed that British lawmakers would also get a chance to vote on the Windsor Framework. But it’s unclear if the agreement will be supported by the DUP and hardline Brexiteers in Sunak’s own Conservative Party. And Charles’ meeting with von der Leyen has already been met with disdain by critics who see the move as an unnecessary politicization of the sovereign before his coronation has even taken place.
Arlene Foster, the former DUP leader and former first minister of Northern Ireland, on Monday tweeted that she couldn’t “quite believe” that Downing Street would ask Charles “to become involved” in finalizing such a controversial deal. “It’s crass and will go down very badly in [Northern Ireland],” Foster added.
Over the weekend, when Charles’ meeting was still just a rumor, arch-Brexiteer and Tory lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg said such a meeting was “on the borderline of constitutional propriety,” according to The Times. Speaking on Monday to GB News, Rees-Mogg added: “I think the sovereign should only be involved when things have been completed and accepted.”
Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) who was instrumental in campaigning for the U.K. to leave the EU in the first place, said in a video shared on his Twitter account that he thinks it is “absolutely disgraceful of Rishi Sunak to even ask the king to get involved in something that is overtly political in every way.”
At a media briefing on Monday, Sunak’s spokesperson defended his decision to advise the king to meet with von der Leyen, suggesting the meeting was “fundamentally” at the palace’s discretion. The spokesperson added that Sunak “firmly believes it’s for the king to make those decisions,” the Guardian reports.
