Beattie slams 'arrogance and entitlement' of the DUP - saying his rivals need to demonstrate humility post-election

Speaking to the News Letter, he said that Gavin Robinson’s party has been trying to “spin a narrative” that the election has been bad for unionism. Mr Beattie says the reality is that it has been bad for the DUP.

On Friday, Gavin Robinson appealed for unionist unity.

The DUP leader said “While Unionism went into this election with eight seats and comes out with eight seats, we can never again see a situation where Pro-Union voters are so divided that seats are lost to those who will not promote the Union.

“I am pledged to work for greater cohesion within the Pro-Union movement. In North Down it has been demonstrated what can be achieved with co-operation, allied to a strong work ethic. Having unilaterally taken the decision to support Alex Easton, as well as Diane Armstrong in Fermanagh/South Tyrone, there is no doubt that the Unionist influence can be advanced”.

However, the UUP boss said “The narrative that’s being spun now is ‘unionism had a bad election’. Unionism didn’t have a bad election. The DUP had a bad election and what they’re now trying to do is make a narrative that it was the whole of unionism in a bad way. Well actually, it was the DUP that was in a bad way. And this unity that they talk of is unity on their terms in many ways.

“I’m happy to have discussions with people. But you have to look at some of the decisions that they made – they were told some of them were bad decisions”, he said, citing the loss of the Lagan Valley constituency.

He said the DUP was told that the manner of Sir Jeffrey Donaldson’s exit would “suppress their vote”.

“Nothing to do with their party… but we knew it would suppress their vote. They were told ‘don’t run a candidate in Lagan Valley because it will suppress your vote’ and we’ll lose the seat.

He said it was “telling” that neither Emma Little Pengelly or Paul Givan wanted to run.

“Through sheer arrogance, I think, and a sense of entitlement they brought in Johnny [Buckley] to run knowing their vote would be suppressed and they lost unionism that seat”.

Mr Beattie said that the election had shown that the “moderate strand of unionism has really come to the fore”.

The UUP boss said the John Stewart’s result in East Antrim, where he significantly increased the party’s vote share, and Robbie Butler’s increased vote in Lagan Valley – demonstrates the desire within the electorate for a moderate unionist party.

He said the anger of the more hardline unionist vote with the DUP is what sent Jim Allister back to Westminster. “That anger is there because the DUP have just not been honest with the people. They haven’t been honest for quite some time now. And they’re going to have to deal with that. Trying to blame everybody else for their own failings is just making them look a little bit ludicrous”, he said.

“I’m not sure that they’re able to recover from some of the things they’ve said and done. As far back as the Protocol – they said that they never supported the Protocol – where they said they never supported it. It’s absolutely clear – people can see where they did support the Protocol. It was only when things started to go wrong for them in the polls when they started to change their minds.

“Even their boycott was not about the Protocol. Their boycott was about dealing with the TUV threat.

He said the Safeguarding the Union document is “the worst lie possible” – with promises that are simply not there and don’t meet their seven tests.

He said the DUP “just need to show a bit of humility and say ‘this is what we got wrong, this is where we misled the electorate, this is what we need to fix’ then they have a way forward. That’s in everybody’s interest”.