Former DUP veteran Jim Wells says party members' desire to re-enter Stormont is 'clouded' by financial self-interest

Many staunch unionists are concerned that doing so means the DUP has resigned itself to Northern Ireland being merely a semi-detached part of the UK, because it remains under partial EU control whilst the rest of the UK isn’t.

Sir Jeffrey said in a press conference in the early hours of this morning: “I'm pleased to report that the party executive has now endorsed the proposals that I've put to them.

"The party has concluded that subject to the binding commitments between the DUP and UK government being fully and faithfully delivered as agreed, including the tabling and passing of new legislative measures in parliament, and final agreement on a timetable the package of measures in totality, does provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Northern Ireland Executive – thus seeing the restoration of the locally elected institutions.”

Asked if support had been unanimous, Sir Jeffrey said: “There was a vote held, and there was a decisive decision taken – that's all I'm going to say.”

Details of the deal, and indeed the outcome of the vote, have not been made public by the DUP.

However, loyalist activist Jamie Bryson – who was apparently being fed information by a party insider from within the late-night DUP executive meeting – said the DUP leader “cannot say he has full support of his party, because he does not”.

• – ‘IT IS DIFFICULT TO BE IMPARTIAL’ –

Jim Wells was a DUP member for decades, and is a former member of the party executive.

He fell out with the party several years ago, and is no longer a member. He since joined the TUV.

His suspicion is that Sir Jeffrey’s claims about the nature of the deal sound “too good to be true”, and that “I think as the days go by it will head inexorably in the one direction – a gradual unravelling”.

However, Sir Jeffrey could still carry the day if he has “bought the silence of the big guns” in the party.

"He needs to get it through with the silence of some of the biggest beasts in the DUP jungle,” said Mr Wells.

"If the beasts go silent and say nothing, then I think Jeffrey can – even if as it unravels – continue to hold the line.”

But if not, Sir Jeffrey has “huge problems”.

Mr Wells’ chief concern about the deal was that any decision to accept it may not have depended upon principle alone.

"I've attended many slick Powerpoint presentations by the DUP over the last 28 years, and they're good at it,” he said.

"Everybody sits in the room and they're bombarded with these slides, flowcharts…

"I keep asking the question: how many people in that room had a direct financial rationale in Stormont coming back?

"The executive has gone from a body which is made up of grassroots supporters, doorknockers, and canvassers – all those people with no direct link to Stormont or Westminster – to a large number of people who are employed directly or indirectly by the party.

"It's since Stormont came back in 1998: a lot of people went to university, got a job in an MLAs office, got on to the council, then got co-opted onto Stormont.

"A lot of the MLAs, that's their entire experience of life, through that route.”

Other members of the 120-or-so DUP executive may be employed as constituency workers, or have relatives who are.

“Like it or not, people in that position have a direct vested position as far as a return to Stormont [goes], and their judgement will be clouded by the fact that a vote not to return to Stormont could be a vote for unemployment.

"I believe the party executive committee should be an executive committee of party activists, not party employees.

"The party executive is 25 of them are MLAs, eight are MPs, and there's five from each constituency, but often those five are made up of people who are employed in constituency offices – or who are councillors, or are married to officers, staff, or councillors…

“In the old days before Stormont was there the executive was made up entirely of grassroots activists who had no pecuniary interest whatsoever.

"When you've a lot of people who are directly financially linked to Stormont then it's more difficult for them to take an impartial view.”

The DUP has been contacted for comment.