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PA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Secretary of State has triggered the process to enable MLAs to vote on the controversial post-Brexit trading arrangements.<\/p>\n Hilary Benn has sent a letter to the Stormont speaker and first and deputy first ministers urging them to bring forward a motion to the assembly before the end of November.<\/p>\n The process, known as the democratic consent motion, was first agreed between the UK and EU in the 2020 Withdrawal Agreement to give local politicians a say in the new post-Brexit trading rules<\/p>\n It allows MLAs at Stormont to decide if the current arrangements including the Northern Ireland protocol should continue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Under the agreement the process has to be set in motion two months before the current arrangements are due to expire at the end of the year.<\/p>\n If the first and deputy first ministers fail to bring forward the motion to allow for the vote then an individual MLA can trigger the mechanism.<\/p>\n But controversially unlike other votes at Stormont there is no requirement for cross community support for the motion. A simple majority will suffice.<\/p>\n Sinn Fein, Alliance and SDLP are all expected to support the continuation of the arrangements.<\/p>\n But, the DUP has argued the vote creates a democratic deficit as the concerns of unionists who are in the minority at Stormont can be ignored.<\/p>\n In a statement, DUP leader Gavin Robinson said it had been “deliberately designed to drive a coach and horse through the cross-community consent principle which has been at the very heart of all political progress in Northern Ireland”.<\/p>\n He also said he expected all pro-Union parties to join him in voting against the continued Windsor Framework.<\/p>\n If the vote is carried without cross community support then the government has committed to ordering an independent review of the post Brexit arrangements and their implications.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It will be one of the most significant and yet predictable votes in the Stormont chamber.<\/p>\n Whenever it happens MLAs will back the continuation of the post Brexit arrangements for another four years.<\/p>\n That is because unionists who are opposed to the arrangements are in the minority.<\/p>\n By way of compensation for them the government has promised to carry out an independent review into how the new trading rules are operating.<\/p>\n The government may also seek to ease the post Brexit burden in Northern Ireland through new agreements with the EU.<\/p>\n Whatever happens, expect a divided chamber and divisive vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAnalysis: ‘Expect a divided vote’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n