DUP tight-lipped after top officers discuss Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris's Hillsborough deal to restore Stormont Executive

The 12 party officers - senior figures of the party - finished a meeting late on Friday afternoon where they discussed the outcome of five-party talks with the Secretary of State this week, aimed at restoring the power-sharing Executive.

However they appeared to remain tight lipped about how the talks went, with no formal party comment offered.

The BBC has reported that party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has guaranteed his party executive - made up of over 100 members - that they will be able to discuss any decision made by the 12 officers. (One senior source suggested it was very unlikely the party’s executive would meet before Christmas).

​Talks on Stormont’s finances at Hillsborough Castle finished on Wednesday without a deal, after the Prime Minister offered DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson new legislation on the UK internal market – if Stormont returns.

The DUP has been boycotting Stormont for 22 months, insisting they will not agree to form an executive while the NI Protocol and Windsor Framework – the outworkings of the post-Brexit trading negotiations with the EU – continue to undermine Northern Ireland’s position within the United Kingdom.

The parties are due to meet again on Monday as speculation mounts that a deal is edging closer.

On Thursday morning, the DUP leader said his party is “approaching the time” for a decision.

Speaking to the BBC on Thursday, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he hadn’t “come this far to plan for failure,” but said that the final stages of a negotiation can be “the most challenging”.

He added: "We've made significant progress.

"Undoubtedly, we're approaching the time when we will be able to examine where we've got to, the progress that's been made and perhaps come to some decisions."

UUP leader Doug Beattie was one of many observers yesterday speculating that a final deal was closer than ever.

“All indications seem to be pointing towards a resolution between the DUP and the Conservative government that will bring to an end this, the latest chapter of a drama that started in 2016," he said.

In a statement to the News Letter on Thursday, Mr Beattie said his party’s warnings about the post-Brexit difficulties were repeatedly ignored or laughed at.

“In 2017 we warned against supporting Boris Johnson and any deal he would make with the EU,” he said. “Those same voices called us foolish. We were the first to challenge the resulting protocol, while those who championed Boris initially said it was a good deal.”

Many UUP recommendations on the protocol were later accepted as solutions as Westminster sought to ease the damage it caused, he said.

Mr Beattie said the UUP has consistently called for “continued engagement” on the issues. It is now “obvious” the DUP’s red lines – the seven tests - will not be met, prompting him to ask why Stormont has been suspended for two years while services, people and the union suffer damage “almost beyond the point of repair”.

However, TUV leader Jim Allister urged unionists to focus on the fact that the Protocol still remains in its original form. “With all the media driven hysteria it would be easy to overlook some important facts,” he said.

"Unionists remain bound by their solemn pledge in the United Unionist Declaration of Ulster Day 2021 – that is ‘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’.

“Not one word of the protocol has changed. Not a syllable of EU law has been removed. So how could any unionist honourably go back to being a protocol implementer?”

The TUV leader said: “This is a seminal moment for unionism. Should the protocol be accepted, unionism will have conceded that never again will Northern Ireland be a full part of the United Kingdom and never again will the Acts of Union be restored.”

Mr Allister said he senses “no wavering” in unionist opposition to the protocol but that unionists who won seats on anti-protocol platforms, “should not be swayed by an unholy trinity of bribery, blackmail and broadcasters”.