SIR JEFFREY Donaldson has said his party is not afraid of an election as he warned that any resolution to the impasse around the Irish Sea border must match the aims of the British government's controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.
In his first conference speech since being elected DUP leader in June last year, the Lagan Valley MP told delegates that the party's mandate in May's assembly poll showed support for its continued boycott of the devolved institutions.
However, he said his party would return to Stormont if "our place in the United Kingdom is restored".
With all recent indications suggesting much-improved relations between the UK and EU, and the Tories warning that an election will be called if no executive is in place by October 28, the DUP is coming under growing pressure to get back into government.
But rather than hint at any compromise over the protocol, Sir Jeffrey said a situation in which the north was "tied to a different set of laws" was "incompatible with devolution".
Around 250 DUP members gathered in Belfast's Crowne Plaza Hotel on Saturday for their party's first conference since October 2019.
The DUP leader opened his speech by expressing his sympathies to the families bereaved in Friday's explosion in Cresslough, Co Donegal.
He also noted how last month's passing of Queen Elizabeth had been "felt intensely across Northern Ireland and our nation as a whole", while there mentions in his address for colleagues who had passed away in recent months.
Sir Jeffrey said his vision for unionism was a "positive and modern one" and that he wanted to "build the broadest coalition of support for that vision from right across the community".
"For me unionism should have no barriers to entry beyond a belief that Northern Ireland is best served as a part of the UK – we want to make Northern Ireland a place of peace, stability and prosperity for all," he said.
He said his brand unionism "does not hanker on returning back to a bygone age" as he recalled "those friends, family and colleagues [who] sacrificed their all".
"Let us as a conference send a clear message that murder and mayhem is never justified – there was always an alternative to violence," he said
In a veiled response to those who have attacked the DUP over its continued boycott in the face of a cost of living crisis, Sir Jeffrey said it was an "uncomfortable truth for some" that the British government has the "financial firepower and resources to adequately deal with the current cost of living squeeze".
"This is a key benefit of the union and tackling the difficulties created by the cost of living will continue to be an absolute priority for the DUP," he said.
He said the outcome of May’s election "must act as a wake-up call to unionists" and that delivering a "more cohesive unionism" required co-operation.
"Everywhere I go, I get one consistent message from unionists, they want us to work together – they see that fractured unionism cost seats, and just five months ago gifted victories to our opponents," he said.
The DUP leader said he believed in devolution and that "many of the decisions that we have objected to most", such as those relating to abortion legislation, were taken at Westminster.
However, he said the Stormont structures could only work "with the support and buy-in of unionists and nationalists".
He said the protocol was making a "massive contribution" to the cost-of-living crisis" and that the DUP would "work relentlessly to have this burden removed."
Sir Jeffrey said how difficulties around the post-Brexit trade arrangements were resolved did not matter.
"For us what is important is the destination reached," he said.
"Let me be clear – either the prime minister delivers the provisions of the protocol bill by legislation or by negotiation and ensures that our place in the United Kingdom is restored... or there will be no basis to re-enter Stormont."
He said the DUP does "not fear the prospect of a fresh election".
"Far from it – if in the absence of his government righting the wrongs visited upon Northern Ireland the secretary of state calls an assembly election... we are ready and we will take our case to the people as the lead party of unionism," he said.
