Watch for yourself - interview with Jim Allister: 'DUP Seven Tests leave them with wriggle room - but even if they accept the deal there should be no return to a Sinn Fein led Stormont'

By leaving some of the tests open to interpretation, it could be easier to argue that the deal meets the party’s criteria.

But Mr Allister also warned that, even if the deal is a satisfactory one (and the full details are not out yet), the DUP should not re-enter Stormont under what would be a Sinn Fein First Minister.

This is because he continues to see the republican party as unfit for government, let alone overall leadership of the country.

In an interview with the News Letter, Mr Allister was asked about the Seven Tests of the DUP which it has pledged to apply to any Protocol deal (read them at the end of this article).

"I think some of them are quite porous,” he said of the tests.

“I think the one that maybe is the greatest hurdle to accepting the anticipated deal is the one which, quite rightly, puts store by the restoration of Article 6 of the Acts of Union.

"The Supreme Court tells us Article 6 is in suspension… because we, under the Protocol, are subject to a foreign customs code and within a foreign single market.

“It’s those two things which are incompatible with the unfettered trade guaranteed under Article 6.”

If the deal keeps Northern Ireland under EU customs code and in its single market, “it will remain suspended and therefore it’d seem difficult for the DUP to see that test is met”.

Difficult… but arguable?

"I think there’s considerable wriggle room in a number of the tests. I think that one has the least wriggle room,” he said.

"But it comes down to this: the DUP leader like myself and other unionist leaders signed a joint unionist declaration on September 28, 2021.

“In it we declared our unalterable position should be in rejecting the Protocol and requiring it to be replaced with arrangements which were compatible with our position as a constituent, an integral, part of the UK.

"If we’re left in a foreign single market for goods, subject to foreign laws and court that comes with that, if we’re left under the aegis of a foreign customs zone which degrees GB’s a foreign country, I don’t see how that solemn pledge can be met.

"Because how could you say that the arrangements have been replaced with that which respects our constituent and integral place within the UK.”

As to whether the DUP should be going into Stormont at all, even if its Seven Tests are met, Mr Allister pointed to Sinn Fein’s ongoing apologetics for the IRA, with the would-be First Minister Michelle O’Neill having declared recently that there was “no alternative” to republican paramilitary violence during the Troubles.

“I think it’d be an appalling mistake to serve under and with someone who tells us there was no alternative to the murder of our kith and kin,” he said.

"I don’t think any self-respecting person would want to be propping up or be part of such a government.”

He went on to add: “Would you miss Stormont?” saying that increasingly unionists are losing faith in it anyway.

• • • The Seven Tests • • •

The DUP’s seven-strong checklist, which it unveiled about 18 months ago, and which formed part of its manifesto for the May 2022 election, is as follows.

Any deal must...

• 1 – Fulfil Article 6 of the Act of Union (which says all parts of the UK shall be under the same “regulations of trade, and liable to the same customs and duties”);

• 2 – Avoid any diversion of trade;

• 3 – Not constitute a border in the Irish Sea;

• 4 – Give the people of Northern Ireland a say in the making of the laws that govern them;

• 5 – Result in “no checks on goods going from NI to GB or from GB to NI” (and remaining in NI);

• 6 – Ensure no new regulatory barriers develop between NI and the rest of the UK unless agreed by the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly;

• 7 – Preserve the letter and spirit of Northern Ireland’s constitutional guarantee, requiring the consent of a majority of the people of NI for any diminution in its status as part of the UK.

••• The Joint Declaration of 2021 •••

In September that year, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Mr Allister, Doug Beattie, and Billy Hutchinson signed the following statement:

“We, the undersigned Unionist Political Leaders, affirm our opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol, its mechanisms and structures and reaffirm our unalterable position that the Protocol must be rejected and replaced by arrangements which fully respect Northern Ireland’s position as a constituent and integral part of the United Kingdom.”

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