A minister who helped broker the deal said unionists should be “reassured” about a new deal that would restore power-sharing to Northern Ireland.
But Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris insisted the new deal was not the end of talks on Brexit and its impact on the UK.
Heaton-Harris spoke to GB News in Belfast on Monday, as Chancellor Rishi Sunak arrived to celebrate the start of work on the Northern Ireland Executive.
He dismissed concerns about the deal from Northern Ireland unionists who fear that checks will remain between the UK and Northern Ireland.
He said: “I think Unionists should be happy and relieved about this deal because it’s a real deal and as I say it’s part of a package that will strengthen our union.” That’s why. And I think it’s unfair and wrong to say otherwise.”
He added: “This agreement is actually about the future of the union. We want to strengthen the union as much as possible.
“I’m a Conservative and Unionist politician in a Conservative and Unionist government. So there’s a lot of fiscal policy and other union-strengthening measures attached to this that make this whole package something special. That’s what I think.”
He added: “This will solve many of the practical problems of getting goods into Northern Ireland.
“One of the reasons the DUP left, having been in leadership before or just after the Windsor Framework was launched two years ago, was that many of its supporters, trade unionists and people from around Northern Ireland, were worried about the paperwork involved. We were seeing products disappearing from the shelves. Please deliver the products from the UK.”
Mr Heaton-Harris said Belfast was now considered “as British as my constituency of Daventry” and added: “This border between the European single market and Northern Ireland is an important issue. “Because we have always said we want to be better neighbors than tenants.” Together with our European Union neighbors.
“We are satisfied that when goods pass through the UK in transit, we protect the European single market as much as any other market.
“So we want to be good partners in this area, but we don’t want to impact on trade between Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom and between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
Heaton Harris, former chairman of the European Research Group of Tory MPs, said he did not believe the Stormont deal meant the end of the Brexit debate.
He said: “To be honest, we don’t yet know how goods will come into the UK from the European Union because we have just introduced the border target operating model.”
“There needs to be a lot of conversations about how that works and what the future relationship with Europe actually looks like.
“No, I don’t think this is the end. But I do think the conversation has moved to a slightly different level.”