Northern Ireland protocol: EU-UK talks ‘secrecy’ points to deal ‘inching closer’, UUP leader Doug Beattie suggests in internal message to party faithful

That is according to the UUP leader Doug Beattie, who made the comment in an internal message to party members on Friday morning.

"I write to you in a week that began with much speculation that an announcement around a new deal between the UK and EU was imminent," the party leader said. "This did not transpire and instead a much more low-key joint statement was issued on Monday. Negotiations have become increasingly shrouded in secrecy in recent weeks, fuelling speculation that the two sides are inching closer."

Mr Beattie also reflected on the "long journey for unionists" since the prospect of a trade border separating Northern Ireland from Great Britain first emerged, saying: "It was the Ulster Unionist Party who first sounded the alarm and continued to in scores of statements over the next number of weeks."

He insisted the party's position on the protocol has not "shifted an inch", adding: " We have taken the Unionist case against the Protocol wherever it needed to be heard. We have articulated that argument and changed the conversation. Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance Party who called for ‘rigorous implementation’ now have no option but to acknowledge the problems posed by the Protocol. The European Union has been forced back to the negotiating table. The United Kingdom Government are now in acknowledgement of their mistakes."

On the powersharing impasse at Stormont, the Upper Bann MLA wrote: “It frustrates me so deeply that we are without an Executive and Assembly. I fundamentally disagree that it gives Unionism strength to boycott the devolved institutions. Without them, the UK Government are free to agree and implement a deal over our heads.”

The message to party faithful follows a debacle earlier this week in which Mr Beattie moved to clarify remarks made on the BBC's Sunday Politics programme, in which he appeared to talk down the threat posed by the Northern Ireland Protocol to the union. Afterwards, he told the News Letter: "Yes, it [the protocol] is a threat. But it’s not the immediate threat that we’re going to slide into a united Ireland now."