DUP starts 2022 NI Assembly election campaign early, calling for unionist pact to defeat Northern Ireland Protocol

North Down DUP MLA Alex Easton called for the pro-Union parties to work jointly in the campaign for next May’s Assembly election – a poll which could be seminal in two areas.

A January poll by Lucid Talk found support for the DUP collapsing, with the party behind Sinn Féin for the first time while the TUV and Alliance benefited from the disillusionment of former DUP voters.

If that was replicated next May it would mean that for the first time in the history of Northern Ireland there would be a Sinn Féin First Minister. However, of far more tangible significance is the fact that those elected next year are likely to be the MLAs who in 2024 will vote on whether the NI Protocol is extended. At present unionism is six seats short of a Stormont majority necessary to vote down the protocol.

In a statement, Mr Easton warned that “unless all unionist parties come together and agree an electoral pact for the 2022 NI Assembly Elections it will be difficult to remove the NI Protocol”.

He argued that extra unionist seats could be won in Lagan Valley, North Belfast, South Belfast, North Down, South Antrim and West Belfast and that there was “a window of opportunity for all unionism’s political leaders to agree an election pact” so that “we can all sing from the same hymn sheet”.

He said that work would be required “to not run too many candidates, shredding the vote, and ensuring unionism transfers its votes between unionism and no other parties”.

The TUV responded that it had “outlined a plan of political action necessary to disrupt the protocol which we believe would force a re-think on the issue now but come the next Assembly election TUV will, of course, be encouraging voters to transfer to other parties which take a clear position of opposition to the protocol”.

The UUP said: “Unionism should be concentrating its political energy on removing the deeply unfair and disproportionate protocol which is the direct result of the DUP’s disastrous dalliances with Boris Johnson and the ERG.

“A useful first step would be for the DUP to admit their disastrous mistake. It does not help build confidence within unionism when they continue to deny their original welcome of what became the protocol.

“If Mr Easton is reflecting the height of the ambitions of the DUP, people need to realise just how long it will take for his plan to get rid of the Protocol. This call by the DUP means accepting the protocol until 2024 when, if pro-Union parties have a majority, it would be voted down. Even then it will continue for another two years meaning the earliest we would get rid of the protocol is 2026. The protocol needs to go now.”

Even if unionists were to achieve a majority in next year’s election – something which some psephologists believe is very unlikely – and every one of those MLAs voted against the protocol in 2024, there is no guarantee that the Irish Sea border would then be removed. In that scenario, the government has not ruled out making minor alterations to the protocol and reimposing it without a democratic vote by the Assembly.

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