TWO Dorset MPs were among 22 Conservative rebels who voted against a key part of Rishi Sunak’s new Brexit deal with the EU.

Christchurch MP Sir Christopher Chope and South Dorset MP Richard Drax joined former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to defy a three-line whip to vote against regulations to implement the Stormont brake section of the Windsor Framework.

The regulations were approved with a majority of 486 in the House of Commons division on Wednesday, March 22.

Mr Sunak said he had “incredibly strong support” for his new deal with Brussels on post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland after seeing off the backbench revolt.

A Government spokesman said the regulations put power back in the hands of Stormont and Westminster, ending the “ratchet effect” of new EU law in Northern Ireland.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood, Poole MP Sir Robert Syms, Mid Dorset and North Poole MP Michael Tomlinson voted with the government.

No vote was recorded for Bournemouth West MP Conor Burns and North Dorset MP Simon Hoare.

Mr Hoare posted on Twitter he would have voted for the framework had he been in parliament, adding that he was paired with a fellow member of the Northern Ireland Select Committee.