DUP, UUP, PUP reject Peter Robinson suggestion of collapsing Stormont to beat NI Protocol — but TUV open to the proposal

In his latest bi weekly News Letter column,published in yesterday’s edition, the former DUP leader said unionism might face a choice between scrapping the NI Protocol or keeping Stormont.

“It’s quite simple really, either suck it up in its present or minimally changed form or resist it,” he wrote.

Of the latter route, he said: “If there is the stomach for defiance then, in truth, you cannot try to ditch the protocol and administer it at the same time.”

He added: “One lesson learned after decades of dealing with governments is that they don’t yield unless life has become uncomfortable. Statements and speeches will not turn them nor, frankly, will petitions and debates...Is the scrapping of the protocol more important than the continued operation of the Assembly?  A choice may have to be made.”

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His successor DUP leader Arlene Foster — who recently led an online petition against the protocol — made clear that she would protect Stormont.

Instead she said she intends to “keep the pressure” on prime minister Boris Johnson to scrap the protocol.

“I want Stormont to succeed, I want devolution to succeed but there has to be a recognition in London, Dublin and Brussels that damage has been done by this protocol and we have to deal with it,” she said.

“We need to make Stormont work because if Stormont wasn’t here, if it disappeared in the morning the protocol would probably be emboldened so we need to use all of the mechanisms at our disposal just as I’m calling on the prime minister to use the legislative options he has.”

Also responding, UUP leader Steve Aiken took  issue with any threat to Stormont.

“Everyone in Northern Ireland can agree that the protocol is not working,” he said. “As to making life uncomfortable, the protocol by its various inconsistencies is doing that day in, day out in Northern Ireland. However threatening to bring down the executive during a Covid pandemic is irrational and irresponsible.”

But TUV leader Jim Allister – who some polling suggests is stealing support from the DUP – said that unionist concerns “will only be taken seriously if there is a threat to something which matters more to London than the protocol. What is that, if it is not Stormont?”

But PUP Deputy Leader John Kyle also said collapsing Stormont would be “a bad move”. He added: “It would mean a return to direct rule with no political accountability.”

Alliance MLA Kellie Armstrong agreed. “Anyone who decides to pull down the power-sharing institutions, particularly in the middle of a pandemic, would not be forgiven” she said.

SDLP Brexit spokesman Matthew O’Toole said: “The debate that should be happening within the DUP is about why they chose to back the hardest possible Brexit when they had the power to ensure a closer relationship between the UK and EU.”

Sinn Fein was invited to comment.

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