The DUP has called for “less of the oversell and more of the reality” from the UK government as it continues to consider its response to the Windsor Framework.
Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said on Sunday there had to be “clarity” around the meaning of the deal between the EU and the UK, and that his party would have to see the legislation before it could make a decision.
“I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle of all of this, and that’s what we need to get at,” he told the former DUP leader Arlene Foster on GB News. “We will seek to do that ourselves with our own assessment, but I think we need to hear from the government, particularly form the prime minister, the reality of what all of this means.”
However, the Sinn Féin vice president and the North’s first minister designate, Michelle O’Neill, told Sky News the DUP cannot deliberate “endlessly” and that with negotiations between the EU and UK now complete “there’s no reason for them to stay outside of the Executive”.
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“They should be back around the Executive table taking on the matters of the day and then, yes, let us work through all the details of this in the deal because equally I have some concerns, particularly around this issue of a Stormont brake and what that might look like and how it can be used,” she said. “But these are things we can also do whilst also being in the Executive.”
The DUP is continuing to block the formation of an Executive or Assembly in Northern Ireland as part of its protest over the Northern Ireland protocol. It has yet to give an official response to the Windsor Framework, saying it will take time to study the detail and get expert advice. Several high-profile DUP politicians have spoken out against the deal.
Mr Donaldson said the DUP needed to see proposed amendments to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the legislation around the “Stormont brake”, the mechanism which would give 30 MLAs from two parties at Stormont the power to raise a concern with the UK government over aspects of EU law which would still apply in Northern Ireland.
“We need to ensure that is a robust process that does protect Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom,” he said, “and we need to see legislation that also ensures that where there is a threat to Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and its internal market in the future that UK government has a duty to ensure that this matter is resolved.”
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, the Northern Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he was working to “clarify all the questions” from unionists and that “technical talks” were ongoing with the DUP and other parties.
He defended the Stormont brake, saying it was a “proper veto” which gives the UK government the power to stop EU law applying in Northern Ireland if it believes it would have a “significant” impact on life and the economy there.
UK government officials are expected to brief the Northern parties this week on how the mechanism will work.
Mr Heaton-Harris appeared to indicate that the UK government could consider some changes to the way Northern Ireland is governed should the DUP not accept the deal, saying “there are other routes forward, and we need to do things on governance if that is the case”.
Ms O’Neill said she hoped the DUP would return to Stormont, saying “power-sharing is how politics works in the North”, but reiterated her party’s position that, if not, “probably the alternative to power-sharing would be some arrangement between the British and Irish government”.
Speaking at her party’s conference in Belfast on Saturday, the Alliance leader Naomi Long also raised concerns about the Stormont Brake, saying she hoped it “does not act to further destabilise Stormont.
“It is, therefore, imperative that the threshold for use of the Brake is clearly defined in legislation, and is enforceable and justiciable, rather than merely aspirational,” she said.
Ms Long also said her party was exploring a legal challenge to the “unacceptable” Stormont voting mechanism which requires nationalist and unionist consent for key issues and repeated its long-held demand for a reform of the Assembly structures.
“By responding to those who up-end the institutions by pandering to their demands time after time, rather than ending their ability to do so, they are condemning devolution to death by a thousand collapses,” she said.
In a statement on Sunday, the Northern Ireland Office again ruled out joint authority, saying it would “not consider” it and its “sole focus is on ensuring Northern Ireland has a locally elected, accountable and effective devolved government in line with the [Belfast] agreement”.
“We have been clear that we will underpin arrangements in the Windsor Framework through amendments to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 to provide constitutional and democratic guarantees for the people of Northern Ireland,” it said. “We will set out further detail in the coming weeks.”
