Rishi Sunak is to travel to Belfast on Friday in a sign a deal on the Northern Ireland protocol is imminent.
There is also speculation that the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is to travel to Brussels on the same day although this has not been confirmed.
The movements suggest an announcement of a negotiated solution between the UK and EU could be as early as tomorrow. Security is already in place at a central Belfast hotel.
The deal has been on the cards for the last four weeks and is expected to include a settlement on an elimination of some checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and a new dispute resolution mechanism not involving the European court of justice in the first instance.
Checks and governance were sources of tension in the Conservative party and with the Democratic Unionist party.
The government is expected to say its new deal complies with the strict seven tests the DUP set in exchange for its support.
Earlier this week Nigel Dodds, a former deputy leader of the DUP, indicated the DUP would not be supporting any deal that continued regulatory divergence betwen Northern Ireland and Great Britain, claiming this would continue the “colonisation” of Northern Ireland by the EU.
A government source said: “The DUP have published in black and white what their seven tests are.
“We believe this meets them, otherwise we wouldn’t have brought the negotiation team home nearly a week ago.”
More details soon …
