Minister’s get back to Stormont demand ‘misguided and mistaken’

The DUP urged the Belfast-born Minister of State for Northern Ireland to instead deal with the root of cause of the problems surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol.

DUP Lagan Valley MLA Emma Little-Pengelly said the minister should remember that her party received a mandate in the May assembly elections for decisive action to replace the protocol.

Speaking on Radio Ulster on Friday morning, Mr Burns said the UK Government formed by the new Prime Minister next week should be left to deal with the protocol.

In the interim period he said there was “no excuse for the DUP not being back in government today.”

The minister continued: “Not having a functioning [NI] Executive is an impediment for us getting the money that Northern Ireland has been allocated as a result of the decisions taken by Rishi Sunak to help families with the cost of living challenges in England. Unless we get an Executive we can’t help those families in Northern Ireland. We will sort the protocol, the DUP should be back in government.”

But Mrs Little-Pengelly called on Minister Burns to “focus on solving the fundamental problems which have created the situation we face today both in dealing with the protocol and ensuring the government takes real action to tackle the root causes of the cost of living challenges we face.”

She said the post-Brexit agreement, which unionists believe has put a border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, had broken the cross-community census at Stormont.

The Lagan Valley MLA continued: “No unionist elected to the NI Assembly in May supports the protocol. It is precisely because of the harm done to that consensus by the protocol that the political institutions are not functioning at this time. We are committed to fully participating in a newly established Northern Ireland Executive, but the NI Protocol must be replaced by arrangements which unionists can support.“

She added: “The DUP opposed the protocol from its inception because it is harmful to the economy and constitutional wellbeing of Northern Ireland. Mr Burns and his colleagues were warned of that damage before the protocol was brought before Parliament.

“The cost-of-living has brought the economic impact of the protocol into even sharper focus.”