DUP will feel heat if London doesn’t deliver more than words

Suzanne Breen

Response: DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson in the House of Commons yesterday. Credit: House of Commons

July 21 2021 10:00 PM

Any unionists expecting a big, bold move on the protocol from the British government were doomed to disappointment.

London said the conditions to invoke Article 16 existed, but it pulled back from doing so. It asked Brussels to renegotiate what it had signed up to in the 2019 Brexit divorce deal, and Brussels said no.

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Nothing changed on Wednesday. It’s very much a case of as we were. Yet despite all its past experience, the DUP appears to retain considerable faith in the Tories.

"This is a significant step in the right direction by the Government and an acceptance that the protocol is not sustainable,” said Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.

"The Prime Minister must continue at pace to remove the Irish Sea border which is fracturing the economic and constitutional integrity of the UK.”

The DUP leader added: "Sticking plasters and short-term fixes were never going to work. We need a proper renegotiation. The EU has failed to recognise the concerns of unionists and has shown zero respect for the consensus approach which has helped secure peace and stability in Northern Ireland.”

But while Donaldson welcomed the Government’s statement, Jim Allister was scathing. "If this was the ‘good news’ promised by the DUP, through Edwin Poots, then, it is gravely disappointing,” he said.

“Mere words and pleas for realism from belligerent Brussels will change nothing. The diversion of trade and societal upheaval caused by the Union-dismantling protocol more than justifies action under Article 16, but, instead, the Government stalls and prevaricates.”

The TUV leader said the test of any change going forward was whether it still left Northern Ireland “in a foreign single market for goods, subject to a foreign customs code, implemented by foreign laws and adjudicated upon by a foreign court”. If “we don’t kill the protocol, it will kill the Union”, he added.

Doug Beattie welcomed the proposals which he said his party wished to study in depth. The UUP leader, who is meeting Micheal Martin on Thursday, said he would be telling the Taoiseach that if Dublin continues to “stand by the status quo then they will be causing further damage”.

The Loyalist Communities Council — which represents the views of the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando — cautiously welcomed Lord Frost’s statement in the House of Lords.

But it added: “If the Irish government wishes to repair some of the damage it has done over the past two years then it should be urging the EC to engage in a positive renegotiation, inclusive of representatives of Northern Ireland this time, to reach a pragmatic solution that is consistent with the Belfast Agreement.

“The LCC commends the unionist community for the restrained but determined protests across Northern Ireland against the imposition of the protocol.

"We will now await the response from Dublin and Brussels before determining if there should be any resumption and escalation of protest action here.”

Former First Minister Arlene Foster told GB News that Brussels would “hang tough” in the face of British pressure to change the protocol. Should that remain the case, the DUP will feel the heat in Northern Ireland if London doesn’t deliver more than words.