DUP leader threatens to collapse Stormont over Northern Ireland protocol

The leader of the DUP has signalled his party will collapse the Stormont Executive within weeks if changes to Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol are not delivered.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson also announced his party’s immediate withdrawal from cross-border political institutions established on the island of Ireland under the Belfast agreement.

The moves are part of an intensification of the DUP’s campaign of opposition to post-Brexit arrangements that have created trading barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Mr Donaldson issued the warning on the future of Stormont in a keynote address in Belfast on the same day as European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic began a two-day visit to Northern Ireland.

Ahead of any move to pull ministers out of the coalition administration, a step that would bring down the powersharing institutions,Mr Donaldson said his party was first seeking to challenge the legality of checks on GB to NI trade introduced under the protocol and establish whether their implementation requires the approval of the Stormont Executive.

“In the final analysis those who are democratically elected by the people of Northern Ireland lack the power to prevent such checks, if that is the case, if our ministers cannot in the end prevent these checks taking place and if the protocol issues remain then I have to be clear, the position in office of DUP ministers would become untenable,” he said.

“If the choice is ultimately between remaining in office or implementing the protocol in its present form then the only option, the only option for any unionist minister would be to cease to hold such office.

“Within weeks it will become clear if there is a basis for the Assembly and Executive to continue in this current mandate, and I want that to happen,” he said.

“But, equally, we will also need to consider whether there is a need for an Assembly election to refresh our mandate if action is not taken to address and resolve the issues related to the protocol and its impact, its damaging impact on Northern Ireland each and every day.”

The protocol was agreed by the UK and EU as a way to maintain a free-flowing land border on the island of Ireland. It achieves that by moving many of the checks and processes required on goods to the Irish Sea. Under the arrangements, Northern Ireland remains in the EU single market for goods and continues to apply EU customs rules.

Unionists have been opposed to its terms which see additional checks on goods arriving to the North from the rest of the UK. They claim the arrangements have undermined Northern Ireland’s place within the UK.

Mr Donaldson’s speech comes as the European Commission vice president, Maros Sefcovic, begins a two-day visit to Northern Ireland.

He will meet business and civic leaders and politicians in the North on Thursday, and is due to deliver a speech at Queen’s University, Belfast on UK/EU relations and to meet the North South Ministerial Council on Friday.

Speaking ahead of his meeting with Mr Sefcovic, the SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said political leaders in the North needed to “set aside their ideological differences and prejudices” around the protocol and “act in the best interests of people here” by “embracing the opportunities”.

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