Sir Jeffrey Donaldson: We can win and stop Sinn Fein push for a border poll

Only a DUP win in the May Assembly election will prevent Sinn Fein from claiming victory and ratcheting up the pressue for a border poll, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has warned.
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At the launch of his party’s election campaign yesterday in a Dundonald cineplex, he told his election candidates that “we are going into this election to win”.

Sir Jeffrey predicted that if the DUP return after May 5 as the largest party in the next Stormont Assembly then they will be able to frustrate Sinn Fein’s designs for a constitutional referendum on Northern Ireland’s future.

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The DUP leader said: “The message coming across on the doorsteps is that the unionist electorate want the DUP to win. They are getting behind us and I believe that we are going to win.”

DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson officially launches the Party's campaign and Five-Point Plan for the 2022 Assembly Election at the Omniplex Cinema, Dundonald.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson pictured at the launch with first time candidates.  Left to right.  Stephen Dunne, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Deborah Erskine and Jennifer Gilmour. 

Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEyeDUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson officially launches the Party's campaign and Five-Point Plan for the 2022 Assembly Election at the Omniplex Cinema, Dundonald.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson pictured at the launch with first time candidates.  Left to right.  Stephen Dunne, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Deborah Erskine and Jennifer Gilmour. 

Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye
DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson officially launches the Party's campaign and Five-Point Plan for the 2022 Assembly Election at the Omniplex Cinema, Dundonald. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson pictured at the launch with first time candidates. Left to right. Stephen Dunne, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Deborah Erskine and Jennifer Gilmour. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

He also appealed to unionist voters to vote for other pro-Union candidates on the ballot paper in each of the Province’s 18 constituencies.

“I want unionism to win this election and that is by voting for the DUP, giving us your first preference and then transferring your votes to other unionist candidates. Because I believe unionism can do better.”

The DUP leader said that if, as some recent opinion polls suggest, Sinn Fein emerges as the largest party after May 5 “this would given them a platform to promote their all Ireland agenda”.

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He continued: “The election is a wake up for those who support the Union. This is not the time to have unionism fractured, and weakened. It not the time for fellow unionists to have a go at one another and it is not the time to take a chance on those who are not tried and tested.

“Elections have consequences. Sinn Fein makes no secret of the fact they want to win this election to argue for and implement their border poll plan.

“Their ambition is to be the biggest party and leading the governments in both the Republic and Northern Ireland. They are massively ahead in every opinion poll in the Republic of Ireland.

“One Irish commentator recently wrote, ‘If Mary Lou McDonald becomes taoiseach and Michelle O’Neill is elected first minister, the calls for a referendum on Irish unity would probably become almost deafening’.

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“Now is not the time for more division and uncertainty. In Northern Ireland the DUP is the only party that can beat Sinn Fein.”

Sir Jeffrey repeated his pledge that the DUP will not return to a new Stormont Executive while the Northern Ireland Protocol was in place.

“When the DUP re-entered government at the beginning of 2020 we did so on the basis of ‘New Decade New Approach’.

“Fundamentally at the heart of ‘New Decade New Approach’ was a commitment by the UK government to restore and protect Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and the UK internal market.

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“Now the UK government has not delivered on that and until they do I will not be going back into the Executive which is required to implement a protocol that harms Northern Ireland,” he said.

The DUP leader claimed that the protocol is costing the local economy £2.5 million each day in terms of added logistical costs on businesses.

“The protocol is a cost-of-living issue. Indeed it has been estimated by the University of Ulster Business School’s senior economist Dr Esmond Birnie that the protocol could add several hundred million annually to Northern Ireland’s grocery bills. The reality is that trade friction between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is fuelling the cost-of-living crisis.”

Sir Jeffrey said he and the DUP believe in unionist co-operation and have no hesitation in urging pro-Union voters to transfer down the ballot paper to other unionist parties after they give the DUP No 1.

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“In the last Assembly election there was only one more ‘unionist’ elected than ‘nationalist’. That wasn’t just down to a lower percentage of unionists turning out to vote but of unionists failing to transfer down the ballot paper. That’s not a luxury we can afford at this election.

“Votes are lost by a failure to transfer. In the 2017 Assembly election seats were lost both because unionists didn’t turn out but also because they did not transfer.

“In the 2017 Westminster election unionism demonstrated how it could come together to maximise unionist representation. With an increased unionist turn out and effective transfers unionism can do so again,” he said.