DUP MLA Diane Forsythe has rejected claims that her party is refusing to restore the executive because it won't serve alongside a Sinn Féin first minister.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill told her party's weekend ard fheis that the DUP was using the protocol as "cover" for not sharing power with nationalists.
"The real reason is because as an Irish nationalist will be at the helm as first minister and everybody knows it," Ms O’Neill said.
The first minister designate has made a similar allegation previously, while the claim the post-Brexit trade arrangements were being used as an excuse for not returning to government was also voiced in the House of Lords last month by former Conservative minister Ken Clarke.
But Ms Forsythe said the DUP had quit the executive in February, when it held a majority of seats.
"Unlike Sinn Féin we have always respected the ballot box and the rule of law,” she told the BBC.
“We want to see the restoration of the devolved institutions here but there’s no solid basis for an executive and assembly until the protocol is replaced with arrangements that restore Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market and our constitutional arrangements are respected.”
Asked if the DUP was “looking over its shoulder” at the TUV, which has claimed “no unionist should be a Sinn Féin bridesmaid”, Ms Forsythe insisted her party was ready to re-enter power-sharing once concerns around the protocol were resolved.
“The DUP respects democracy and our leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is firmly on the record as saying that,” she said.
