Image source, PA/Peter Morrison
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is to brief DUP executive members later on Monday
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) executive members are due to be briefed on a possible deal to restore power-sharing at Stormont on Monday.
Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is to provide a “detailed update”.
However, BBC News NI understands there is no meeting planned with party officers and only they have the power to sign off on a deal.
The DUP collapsed the executive nearly two years ago in protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements.
The party has been in talks with the UK government seeking changes to the arrangements which were agreed in the UK-EU Windsor Framework deal.
It stated the meeting will be at a “secure venue” and the location and directions will be circulated on Monday.
The DUP has more than 120 executive members, including MLAs, party officers and others.
In the email sent to those members, the party’s chief executive wrote: “I apologise for the short notice of this meeting but due to circumstances beyond our control the officers… have determined to waive the normal notice period for calling a meeting.”
Executive members were also asked not to discuss details of the meeting with the media.
What is likely to be in the deal?
I have not seen the deal offered to the DUP and I haven’t been briefed on it, but what seems to be central to the government’s offer is that it will opt to limit the UK’s active divergence from EU rules on traded goods where that would cause difficulties for Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland stayed within the EU single market for goods after Brexit, so the EU now requires controls on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland in case non-EU approved products end up in its territory.
The Daily Telegraph reported that limiting active divergence would mean new UK laws would have to be screened in relation to EU rules to ensure they do not have any significant adverse impact on trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
So, will the UK actively converge on any EU rule changes for the same purpose? To me, that is the big unanswered question.
Other aspects of the deal are mooted to include:
- An east-west political body similar to the North South Ministerial Council, to discuss mutual interests between Northern Ireland and Great Britain
- A business organisation similar to InterTrade Ireland but focused on boosting trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain
- The Windsor Framework’s green lane being re-named the UK internal market lane
- New legal guarantees of access for Northern Ireland traders selling to Great Britain
There will still be differences in how trade is conducted in Northern Ireland, compared to other parts of the UK, but can that be minimised to an extent that would be acceptable to DUP members?
A ‘DUP/Sinn Féin carve-up’?
On Monday, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Doug Beattie told Good Morning Ulster he believed the DUP would make a decision later, at least internally, but they will wait to see what the government does.
“I have done all I can to try and support Sir Jeffrey in making the decision to go back into government,” he said.
“Tonight unelected representatives of the DUP are going to be briefed, in detail about the deal, and here I am as a leader of a party entitled to go into the executive, though who has still not received any briefing about what it involves, and I am hearing that Sinn Féin also understands what the deal involves.
“It looks like there will be a DUP/Sinn Féin carve-up in any executive.”
Image source, Reuters/CLODAGH KILCOYNE
Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill has repeatedly called on the DUP to return to power sharing at Stormont
DUP peer and former speaker of the assembly Lord Hay told the programme that the meeting is “very simply to update grassroot members by the party leader of where we’re at with the talks with the government”.
He added: “The real traitors within unionism are people who continually brief against the party, even within the party, and all they’re doing is damaging unionism for now and the future.”
Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister, Baroness Kate Hoey, Ben Habib and Jamie Bryson have jointly published a paper setting out their opposition to any deal.
They warned the DUP against “implementing the union dismantling protocol” which they say the party once opposed.
In a statement, they said: “The perversion and constitutional obscenity of a partitioning border in the Irish Sea would be given permanency through its acceptance by the DUP, if they return to Stormont now.”
Last week, the deadline for restoring devolution was extended to 8 February; if there is no executive in place by then, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris…
Read More: Stormont: DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to brief members on possible deal