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There will be no political stability in the North while unionist concerns over post-Brexit arrangements erecting a trade border between the region and Britain remain unresolved, DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has warned.
The Lagan Valley MP said Boris Johnson had “badly”let down unionists by failing to focus on tensions over the Northern Ireland Protocol, while he dealt with the so-called partygate controversy at Downing Street.
“The prime minister did let us down and let us down badly,” he said.
“At the Conservative party conference this year I met the prime minister — he apologised to me. The problem is we have had a lot of words about triggering Article 16 which the protocol allows the (British) government to do in circumstances where there is economic, societal or political harm caused by the protocol and yet we haven’t had any action.”
The contentious Article 16 of the protocol allows the EU or UK to unilaterally suspend aspects of its operations if either side considers that aspect to be causing “economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.
The protocol was negotiated as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland by effectively keeping the North in the EU’s single market for goods.
Resulting additional checks on goods arriving into the region from Britain are opposed by unionists, who believe it threatens the constitutional status of the North within the UK.
DUP First Minister Paul Givan resigned from his post in the power-sharing Executive at Stormont on Thursday in protest at what the party sees as inaction on the protocol.
Attempts by the DUP Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots to halt the post-Brexit checks at ports in the North were scotched last week when a High Court judge in Belfast blocked Mr Poot’s order to civil servants in his department.
An interim order suspending the direction after two separate applications for judicial reviews – by an unidentified member of Sinn Féin and another individual – will remain in place pending legal challenges, expected next month.
Mr Donaldson said he has repeatedly asked for a commitment from Downing Street that Article 16 will be triggered if there is no agreement between London and Brussels on removing the de facto trade border in the Irish Sea.
While he wanted to see political stability in the North, he said that can’t happen until the controversy over the port inspections and checks are resolved to the satisfaction of unionists.
“But we can’t have political stability when the concerns of unionists are being completely ignored, when the protocol is harming our relationship with the rest of the UK, and the government is failing to act,” he told Sky News.
On the timing of Northern Ireland Assembly elections, expected in May but with some speculation about possibly bringing the date forward, Mr Donaldson said it was a matter for Britain’s secretary of state for the North Brandon Lewis to decide.
Despite polls showing Sinn Fein widening its lead on the DUP as the North’s largest party, which would allow it to nominate a First Minister if replicated at the ballot box, Mr Donaldson said he was “not contemplating defeat to Sinn Fein”
His party is working to maintain “the DUP and unionism as the largest bloc in the Northern Ireland Assembly and in those circumstances I think we will have a DUP First Minister,” he said.
While he is committed to devolution and power-sharing “we cannot go on with the situation where the views and concerns of unionism and unionist parties in Northern Ireland are being ignored,” he added.
Mr Donaldson said “solutions have to found” and that he hoped that would happen before the Assembly elections.
Appealing to Mr Johnson to switch his focus from the partygate controversy to the Northern Ireland Protocol, Mr Donaldson said the British prime minister should follow the lead of his predecessors.
“Recognise that we have a serious problem here and instead of being focused on what is going on in Downing Street, be the prime minister the people need, reach out to Northern Ireland, help us to resolve these issues, make this a priority,” he said.
“Let’s get our political institutions restored on the basis of sound foundations. That means dealing with the protocol.
“We can’t go on like this. We can’t go on with a situation where serious problems like we have here in Northern Ireland are not getting the attention they deserve.”
Mr Donaldson said the controversy surrounding parties in Downing Street during Covid-19 restrictions “is making it difficult for the prime minister to focus on what needs to get priority.”
Denying his party was in meltdown after a rancorous split among members and a raft of bitter leadership heaves were played out in public last year, Mr Donaldson said he was working to restore order within his ranks.
“The DUP has its differences and sadly last year those differences became a very public affair and I deeply regret that happened and I am working to pull the party together, to get the party into shape for the election, and win the election for unionism.”