THE DUP’s Sammy Wilson has rejected claims by his party’s former leader Peter Robinson that a deal to restore the Stormont Executive is approaching.
A clip of an upcoming Talkback interview with the former First Minister hinted that the DUP should not overplay their hand with the Stormont boycott.
“I do take the position that there is stage where I think unionists have to recognise ‘we really have pushed this one,’” he said.
“We have got a good deal. Not everything that we wanted, but the rest that we do want I think we’re in a position to be able to argue for it and to achieve it using the Assembly as our base for doing it.”
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Responding on BBC Good Morning Ulster, Mr Wilson said: “I certainly don’t get the impression that we’re close. He must different information than I have.”
It followed reports that Northern Ireland has lost out on around £1bn of government funding as part of the levelling up programme, with the lack of a functioning Executive blamed.
Mr Wilson said this amounted to economic blackmail, and that there was no point in restoring power sharing unless the DUP’s concerns over post-Brexit trading could be resolved.
“Peter knows and the public know that we have set out certain objectives that we believe were necessary for the stability of the Assembly and the safety of the union,” he said.
“If those conditions aren’t met then it’s pointless in going back into the Assembly and it would be dangerous indeed from the point of view of the union.”
He said the requirements were to restore Northern Ireland’s place within the union, not to have laws imposed from the European Union without proper democratic accountability and to remove a trading border in the Irish Sea.
The DUP has been blocking powersharing at Stormont for more than a year and a half in protest at the internal UK trade barriers created by Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.
The party has been involved in negotiations with the Government about the Windsor Framework, which reformed the protocol and is seeking further assurances, by way of legislation, over Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market.
Sinn Féin’s MLA for Newry and Armagh, Conor Murphy, said later in the programme: “I think there is a degree of choreography going on, it reflects the comments that Jeffrey Donaldson made at his own party conference but meanwhile everyone sits and waits until this drama plays out within the DUP.
“Clearly, one of their main problems is the level of disagreement and dysfunctionality within their own party.”
On the prospects of a deal, Mr Murphy said any agreement would need to be signed off by both the British and Irish governments as well as Stormont, but repeatedly declined to say if he knew of any specific details.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said the talks are in their final phase but DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has cautioned that there are still gaps between their negotiating positions and said he cannot be sure that powersharing at Stormont will return before the end of this year.
