he prime minister will give the Northern Ireland assembly a veto over changes to the Irish border backstop in an attempt to persuade her MPs to vote for her Brexit deal.

The Department for Exiting the EU published the text of this “Stormont lock” – named after the parliament buildings at Stormont in Belfast – on Wednesday morning, as MPs prepared to recommence their debate on the deal, ahead of a vote next week. The key paragraph is 23, which says: “We will … legislate in domestic law to ensure that a UK Minister will be required to seek agreement of the Northern Ireland assembly before reaching any agreement in the UK-EU Joint Committee to add additional alignment provisions to the scope of the Protocol.”