Cutting pay over Stormont boycott won't affect the DUP's stance on such an 'important point of principle': Sir Jeffrey Donaldson

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson made his comments in response to the Northern Ireland secretary’s decision to extend the deadline for calling an assembly election – and to cut the salaries of all MLAs by 27.5% during the impasse. Chris Heaton-Harris announced the measures in the House of Commons as he outlined his next steps in response to the power-sharing crisis.

Mr Donaldson said: “Whilst we recognise that, understandably, people have a concern about MLAs receiving their full salaries when the assembly is not fully functioning, we are clear – this is not for us about the money, it is about the principle, and the mandate on which our assembly team was elected.” Mr Donaldson said his party was not prepared to operate political institutions that have to impose the outworkings of a protocol “that every single day is harming the people of Northern Ireland and our place in the United Kingdom”.

Speaking to the News Letter, he added: “For us, that is a principle that is fundamentally important. "Our objective is to get to a solution, and for us the sooner that can happen the better. We want the political institutions up and running, but it has to be a solution that isn’t about tinkering around the edges of the protocol. "That is not going to cut it – it has to be a solution that restores our place in the United Kingdom, including the UK internal market.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will stress his determination to restore the power-sharing executive at Stormont when he attends a British-Irish Council summit on Thursday. Mr Sunak will be joined at the gathering by Scotland and Wales first ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford, and he will also meet Taoiseach Micheal Martin.

It is rare for a British prime minister to travel to British-Irish Council summits, with Mr Sunak the first PM since Gordon Brown in 2007 to attend.