Considerable unionist support for DUP stance on scrapping Protocol

Some 43% believe the DUP should “immediately withdraw” from the Executive because there hasn’t been enough progress in binning it.

Another 15% favour leaving “sometime over the next two/three months” if no progress is made in removing the protocol, while 5% think the DUP should quit Stormont for the same reason after May’s election.

There is a significant divergence of opinion between the supporters of each of the unionist parties on the issue.

Some 98% of TUV voters want Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to take his party out of Stormont over the protocol compared to 81% of DUP supporters and just 28% of Ulster Unionists.

Some 90% of TUV voters want the institutions crashed immediately compared to 57% of DUP supporters.

Almost a fifth (19%) of those backing Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s party support bringing down Stormont in the next few months and 5% after the Assembly election if there isn’t movement towards scrapping the protocol.

But 17% of DUP voters are against collapsing devolution – 10% want rid of the protocol but think their party must remain in Stormont and oppose it by other means.

Five per cent believe that – while imperfect – the protocol is workable and the DUP should negotiate adjustments, and 2% support it.

Among UUP voters, 11% want the DUP to leave Stormont immediately over the protocol; 9% if there isn’t progress to removing it within the next few months; and eight per cent after May’s election.

Almost a quarter believe the DUP must find a way other than collapsing the institutions to remove the protocol, and the largest group (45%) of those supporting Doug Beattie’s party think the protocol can be made workable by negotiating amendments

There is overwhelming support for the protocol among nationalists but 55% of them still say it needs adjustments while 39% say there are no problems with it.

Among the general voting public, 36% believe the protocol is wrong in principle and should be binned while 10% describe it as “too much of a burden” and say it needs serious reform.

Just over a third of people (34%) believe it needs “some adjustments” while 18% say there are no problems with the protocol as it currently stands.

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