DUP party officers to hold crunch meeting today to consider deal to restore Stormont

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (centre) at Hillsborough Castle this year with party colleagues Gavin Robinson, Emma Little Pengelly and Gordon Lyons during talks with the five main parties and the Secretary of State.
Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye — DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (centre) at Hillsborough Castle this year with party colleagues Gavin Robinson, Emma Little Pengelly and Gordon Lyons during talks with the five main parties and the Secretary of State. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

A crunch meeting of DUP party officers will take place today – as the party faces a decision over whether the deal done with the UK government is enough to secure the party’s return to the Executive.

The BBC’s Nolan Show reports that this is a ‘deal or no deal’ scenario and will define the future of the union – and that Stormont could be back as early as next week.

It also reports a ‘senior source’ in the party who claims the leadership has calculated that the money on offer from the government will be more important to the public than the Windsor Framework.

There is clearly a split within the DUP officer board over whether a return should happen before the Irish Sea border is removed. The exact numbers are unclear, however vocal opponents of a return while Northern Ireland is not on an equal trade footing with the rest of the United Kingdom include Sammy Wilson and Lord Dodds.

Speaking to the BBC the DUP source questioned how Sir Jeffrey Donaldson would manage the splits within the party. If, as appears, there is a significant split within the 12 strong party officer team – that is likely to be reflected within the wider party membership.

The scope of any deal on Northern Ireland’s trading relationship with the rest of the UK is likely to be limited. For fundamental changes to the Windsor Framework to take place, they would need sign off from the EU. The News Letter understands that the EU have not been involved in negotiations – and view them as a ‘domestic matter’ between the DUP and the government.

Former Secretary of State Shaun Woodward told the BBC that now was the time for Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to “come off the fence” – and said this is an “existential” moment for the DUP.

He said: “What I think I’m seeing here is that moment has now arrived. He is going to try and get his party today to smell the coffee. And that coffee is built very much out of those strikes yesterday”.

UUP leader Doug Beattie said the time for a decision was always going to come – and now the DUP will decide whether they will accept the deal or not.

The Upper Bann MLA said: "Which way it goes, I’ve simply got no idea. I hope that the party can support Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and go back into government again because Northern Ireland as a working part of the United Kingdom is exactly where I want us to be, working for all the people. But where we are now is that decision point which we knew was coming. It has now arrived and we have to see what the out-workings are of it.”