DUP 'more concerned with hiding the truth' than confronting Irish Sea border's implications - Jim Allister

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly described a civil service job ad as “hugely politically embarrassing for me". Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wireplaceholder image
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly described a civil service job ad as “hugely politically embarrassing for me". Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
Text messages between the deputy First Minister and civil service boss Jayne Brady show the DUP is “a party obsessed with damage control, not damage repair”, according to the TUV leader.

Jim Allister was responding to newspaper revelations that Emma Little-Pengelly had described the appointment of a Stormont official – to oversee regulatory divergence between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK – as “hugely politically embarrassing for me”.

In response, Ms Little-Pengelly has hit out at “ill-informed criticism” on social media, and sought to focus on SPS (animal and plant health) rules – which she says are the same across the UK. She said the DUP’s focus is on ensuring “free flowing internal UK trade”.

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The party’s critics have repeatedly pointed out that the regulatory border would remain regardless of any SPS alignment, with the EU remaining in control of the goods market in Northern Ireland.

The exchange between the DUP minister and Jayne Brady came after the civil service advertised a job – entitled ‘head of regulatory divergence’ – to track growing differences in trading rules as a result of the Windsor Framework. However, despite the post being in the joint Sinn Fein – DUP Executive Office, Ms Little Pengelly had not been informed about the post, and raised concerns about how it would be portrayed.

The messages, first reported in the Belfast Telegraph, show the deputy First Minister (dFM) asking Ms Brady “who on earth named this” and questioning how they thought it “wasn’t going to attract attention and concern”.

The post was advertised last Autumn, after the DUP had moved away from its initial false claims that the Irish Sea border had been removed. However, the issue was still politically sensitive, as messages from the dFM show.

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“This has the potential to become a story. Can you check this out and see what can be done to address urgently?”, she said. The Head of the Civil Service (HOCS) replied: “I’m on it. I wasn’t aware of it.”

Ms Little-Pengelly sent HOCS an image of a tweet from loyalist Jamie Bryson which criticised the job advertisement, asking “how is any self-respecting unionist implementing this?” The dFM told Ms Brady: “Bryson now has this.”

After a media query about the issue, the dFM text Ms Brady: “If you are putting out a press line can you make it absolutely clear that this was not a ministerial decision nor was it brought to our attention that this was to be advertised... This is hugely politically embarrassing for me.” Ms Brady replied: “Apologies for any embarrassment and issues in handling. I will review with David [Malcolm, the TEO permanent secretary].”

North Antrim MP Jim Allister says the messages show that the DUP’s “sea border spin” has been exposed – saying that the Belfast Telegraph article “lays bare the desperate spin the DUP has deployed to conceal the reality of the Irish Sea border”.

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The TUV boss continued: “The panic of Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly when her own department advertised for a ‘Divergence Co-ordinator’ confirms what TUV has said all along: the border remains and Stormont is helping to implement it.

“The role was designed to manage and implement divergence between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, something which would not be necessary if the Irish Sea border were truly gone. Yet the deputy First Minister’s reaction focused not on the substance of the divergence, but on the optics. Her concern wasn’t that Northern Ireland is being separated from Great Britain — it was that people will notice.

“What we see here is a party obsessed with damage control, not damage repair. It shows a DUP more concerned with hiding the truth than confronting the constitutional implications of the Protocol they are now helping to administer. Their return to Stormont was built on the claim that the Sea Border had been removed. New barriers, like the parcel border, continue to emerge”.

Mr Allister said it is time the DUP “stopped insulting the intelligence of the unionist electorate”.

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He said the deputy First Minister “is using her position in government to try to conceal the truth. Emma Little-Pengelly called this episode ‘hugely politically embarrassing’. And so it is. If the DUP return to power wasn’t built on lies, it wouldn’t be so embarrassing to tell the truth.”

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