Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said the Windsor Framework is a “sticking plaster” and that he is looking forward to negotiating with the Prime Minister and Secretary of State.

It comes after EU member states approved the Windsor Framework on Tuesday, and a key element of the EU-UK agreement – the Stormont brake – was endorsed by 515 votes to 29 in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

The DUP voted against it, with party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson saying the party wanted assurances that EU law could not impede Northern Ireland’s ability to trade with the rest of the UK.

He has made clear that his party will not return to Stormont in its protest against the trade agreements.

placeholder image — Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said the Windsor Framework is a “sticking plaster” and that he is looking forward to negotiating with the Prime Minister and Secretary of State.

“I am not interested in sticking plasters, they don’t work and I’m afraid there is in the Windsor Framework an element of the sticking plaster,” Mr Donaldson said.

“It won’t work, it will not deliver the long term stability and prosperity that Northern Ireland.”

He continued: “We’re looking primarily to the Prime Minister and to the Government of the United Kingdom. No better place than here at Royal Hillsborough to say to the Government we need to sort this out, we need to get the change that is required to deliver stable sustainable government in Northern Ireland.”

He added: “When the Foreign Secretary comes back from Brussels, when the Prime Minister has the time, we’ll be sitting down with them along with the Secretary of State and we’ll be putting our case.”

However Secretary of State for Chris Heaton-Harris said the Windsor Framework will be implemented into law.

Mr Heaton-Harris spoke of the nature of his talks with Northern Ireland party leaders at Hillsborough Castle.

“We’ve been talking about the Windsor Framework, how a deal that everybody said that could not be done between the UK Government and the European Union has been done to solve all the practical and many other issues that were caused by the Northern Ireland Protocol of the past, and that that deal is done,” he said.

“And that deal is going to be accepted at a joint committee meeting tomorrow and will become international law shortly afterwards. There is no renegotiating of that deal.

The Northern Ireland Secretary also responded to DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson’s characterisation of the Windsor Framework as a ‘sticking plaster’.

“The Windsor framework is not a sticking plaster, it’s a solution to the problems that were produced by the protocol and it will work,” Chris Heaton-Harris said.

“And the two sides to those negotiations which have concluded, the UK Government and the European Union, are going to make the framework work.So there is nothing more to get out of that conversation. It is done.”

Mr Heaton-Harris added: “Now I think it’s down to the communities of Northern Ireland to work out how best it can work for them. I think it can work for them really well.

“I do believe it will herald, alongside the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday agreement, the next 25 years could be all about prosperity, if everybody puts their shoulder to the wheel.”