Northern Ireland Protocol: 'Growing appetitite' to bypass DUP in restoring Stormont would give ‘no durable outcomes'

The DUP says claims of a growing appetite at Westminster to restore Stormont without it “will never produce durable or balanced outcomes”.
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The DUP reaction came after Simon Hoare MP, chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, claimed there was a "growing appetite" for a change to Stormont rules to stop one party from bringing down powersharing.

Despite the absence of a devolved government, Mr Hoare ruled out any prospect of a return to direct rule.

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“The Secretary of State (Chris Heaton-Harris) and the Government have made it absolutely clear that there is going to be no return to direct rule... that is for the birds. That is not going to happen,” he told the BBC.

Conservative MP Simon Hoare, chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, outside Parliament Buildings, Stormont in Belfast.Conservative MP Simon Hoare, chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, outside Parliament Buildings, Stormont in Belfast.
Conservative MP Simon Hoare, chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, outside Parliament Buildings, Stormont in Belfast.

What is far more likely to happen, he said, is that the Secretary of State will listen to the grassroots in Northern Ireland, who may very well start to advocate in greater numbers for a change in the rules by which an executive is formed.

It would be “absolutely key” for both communities to be represented within that executive, but with a growing other identification, he said.

“There is a growing appetite not to allow any party, either the DUP or Sinn Fein…to have this rubric which allows one party or another to pick up the ball, run off the pitch and say they are not playing anymore, [it] is indefensible, is wrong and it has to stop.”

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But DUP MLA Emma Little-Pengelly responded that not one unionist MLA supports the NI Protocol. "The Government has had several years to deal with the Protocol,” she said.

“Those who would try to sweep unionist concerns to the side by such reforms are badly mistaken.

“For those who have forgotten, political progress in NI was hard won and is built on the support of unionists and nationalists. Not one unionist MLA supports the Protocol. The idea that one section of our people will dominate the other and ignore the concerns of unionists will never produce durable or balanced outcomes.

“It’s a fact that Powersharing only works with the support of nationalists & unionists. It’s a fact that Devolution will only be restored when the Protocol is replaced with arrangements that unionists can support."