LONDON – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak risks a significant political backlash after he defied hardline anti-European MPs in his own Conservative Party by signing a new cooperation agreement with the European Union (EU).

Barely two years after Britain formally left the EU amid bitter recriminations from both sides, he and Dr Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, signed a deal simplifying Customs controls and tackling some of the most sensitive political difficulties between the two sides.