evidence: - A majority of total MLAs and a majority of both nationalist and unionists in attendance, vote in favour; or - 60% of MLAs, including 40% of unionists and nationalists in attendance, vote in favour. [...] The EU and Ireland also feel that, if the decision was in the hands of Northern Ireland alone and not the UK Parliament, the risk of a vote against the arrangements is reduced. There is a wide-spread opposition to no-deal in Northern Ireland. In August, over half of MLAs signed a letter 25 Devenport M, MLA appeal over backstop in letter to Tusk, BBC News, 22 August 2019, www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49435880 to the EU Council President expressing their support for Theresa May’s backstop. [...] The consent mechanism has received a mixed reaction from political parties in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland’s largest Unionist Party the DUP have argued that the mechanism violates the principle of consent in the Good Friday Agreement, as the vote could be passed by a simple majority, without the support of both communities. Several Unionist parties and UK politicians have launched a legal challenge to the consent mechanism regulations and the protocol itself on this basis. 26 McBride S, Unionist leaders unite to go to court over Irish Sea border, arguing it breaches the 1800 Act of Union and 1998 Belfast Agreement, News letter, 21 February 2021, www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/unionist-leaders-unite-to-go-to-court-over-irish-sea-border-arguing-it-breaches-the-1800-act-of-union-and-1998-bel…