The Democratic Unionist party (DUP) has rebuffed a British government appeal to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland despite the introduction of legislation to scrap post-Brexit checks in the Irish Sea.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, on Tuesday welcomed the Northern Ireland protocol bill but said the party would revive the Stormont assembly only if the bill progressed at Westminster.
“Parliament can either choose to go forward with the agreement and the political institutions and stability in Northern Ireland, or the protocol, but it can’t have both,” he told BBC radio’s Good Morning Ulster.
It was a blunt rejection of an appeal by Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, who minutes earlier on the programme had urged the DUP to “get on with it”.
In unveiling the bill on Monday Truss justified overturning swaths of the protocol, which formed part of the divorce deal with the EU, on the grounds that it was necessary to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland.
“People deserve to have a government,” Truss told the BBC. “We have published this bill which does deliver for all the communities of Northern Ireland.” Power sharing should resume “as soon as possible”, she said.
The DUP has demanded changes to the protocol, which it says weakens the region’s economy and position in the UK, as the price of its return to Stormont, which cannot function without the party.
However, Donaldson made clear his party would budge only after the legislation progressed through Westminster. “There is a stark choice here for parliament. The Northern Ireland protocol and Good Friday agreement cannot exist together. One seriously harms the other. The protocol undermines the cross-community consensus on which the political institutions operate.”
Peter Robinson, a former DUP leader who retains influence, underlined the hardline mood with an op-ed in the Belfast News Letter. “The DUP should remain outside the executive until the bill is delivered,” he wrote. “It is only the DUP’s refusal to enter the executive until this issue is resolved that has provided the necessary movement and momentum, the party must act with caution and certainty.”
The entrenched position dimmed hopes of a swift resolution to the impasse in Northern Ireland but could bolster Downing Street’s efforts to rally Conservative support for the bill, which faces a bumpy passage in the House of Commons but especially in the House of Lords.
Criticism of the legislation – which may trigger legal action by the EU – continued to mount.
Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, called the bill a “fundamental breach of trust”, saying many EU leaders now doubted the UK could be relied on to uphold future agreements.
Speaking on his way into a cabinet meeting in Dublin, Martin said the legislation was “anti-business and anti-industry”. Northern Ireland businesses were performing well under the protocol, he said.
