The Democratic Unionist Party must seek an urgent meeting with Boris Johnson to warn him that it will stop sharing power in Stormont by Christmas if the Northern Ireland Protocol is not changed.
A senior party official said this would shift responsibility for Stormont to the prime minister: “We will say he has a choice: Stormont or the protocol.
The ultimatum came when the UK’s justice minister, Dominic Raab, promised to do “whatever is necessary” to change the protocol, which calls for checks on goods crossing into Northern Ireland from Britain.
But the DUP’s confidence in the Conservative Party, which was already low, was shattered last week when Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis hinted that the government was withdrawing from threats to introduce laws to unilaterally fail to implement parts of the protocol.
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Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will address his concerns in a statement Tuesday after the Queen’s speech in the House of Commons.
The Queen’s speech is expected to include a commitment to protect the interests of the union community and the Good Friday agreement, but the DUP says it will not go as far as it wants.
Jonathan Buckley, re-elected by the DUP MLA for Upper Bann, told the Belfast Telegraph on Sunday that Lewis should also take responsibility for changing the protocol: “Either the secretary of state wants the executive or the protocol, he can’t have both.”
Lewis said he would meet with all of Northern Ireland’s party leaders in the coming days, but the DUP would stick to its position that it supports Stormont’s boycott and only London’s intervention can restore power-sharing. “We can postpone this until Christmas,” said a senior DUP insider.
The party claims that despite the rise in support for Sinn Fein in last week’s election, most seats in Stormont (35) went to union parties – 25 to the DUP, nine to the UUP and one to the Traditional Unionist Voice party.
Doug Beatty, the unionist leader in Ulster, said he had been invited to meet with Lewis on Monday and expected Stormont’s meeting to resume work this week, despite the formation of a chief executive. “I expect all our MPPs to be there. We have a lot of work to do. “
Claire Sugden, an independent trade unionist in East Derry, said she supported the formation of the executive branch as soon as possible. “I think there are problems with the protocol, but I want to see the executive director working now.” The protocol is not a constitutional issue, but a logistical issue that needs to be corrected, she said.
Sugden said he would not join any party in Stormont, adding: “People chose me as independent.” There has been speculation that the DUP may try to co-opt independent union MPs to overtake Sinn Féin’s numerical superiority.
An insider in Belfast said the party called for a substantial reform of the protocol, with one of their lawmakers warning that they should exclude the entire role of the European Court of Justice – a previously problematic point in negotiations with the EU. “All the energy in trade unionism is currently on the right and requires major changes.
DUP insiders say they will put pressure on the prime minister that the new laws, designed to prevent a future collapse of the assembly, also give him the power to delay the formation of the executive branch by up to six months.
Under legislation passed in February, parties have six weeks to open the assembly to form an executive branch. If they fail to do so, they may receive three more extensions of six weeks. If there is no executive power by the end of the 24 weeks, then the Secretary of Northern Ireland must convene an election, which must take place within 12 weeks.
The deputy leader of the centrist Alliance party, Stephen Farry, who more than doubled his seat in the parliamentary elections, could be an ally of the DUP. Farry said over the weekend that it should be more widely acknowledged that the protocol should be changed, but he called for a “pragmatic approach” with all countries working together in Stormont, not a new battle with Brussels.
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