Windsor Framework and Northern Ireland Protocol: Who is who on DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson's consultative group to assess EU-UK agreement - and what have they said about the Protocol?

Some party members like MPs Sammy Wilson and Ian Paisley have already voiced pessimism that the deal will “cut the mustard” (in the latter’s words).

Neither of these two party veterans sit on the panel – indeed, it contains only one sitting MP, and two serving MLAs. It is to report by end of March.

So: who’s who on this powerful panel?

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• ARLENE FOSTER

Arlene Foster led the DUP from 2015-2021 and now sits as an independent in the House of Lords.

She was elected as a UUP MLA in 2003 but switched to the DUP in 2004, along with Jeffrey Donaldson, in protest at the Good Friday Agreement.

She now works as a presenter for GB News, which recently announced that it would be expanding her role into all weekday programming.

After initially saying Boris Johnson’s 2019 looked “sensible” she turned against the government’s stance and went on to join other unionists in a Supreme Court challenge to the legality of the Protocol.

On the day the Windsor Framework was unveiled, she said: "Some of the issues that were dismissed as solutions back in 2019 appear to be back on the table again, such as trusted traders, such as dealing with digital solutions, to gather intelligence on the movement of goods… I welcome that.”

But she added that “a key test” will be “whether the European Court of Justice has a role in Northern Ireland”.

• PETER ROBINSON:

Peter Robinson led the DUP from 2008 to 2015, retiring from politics in 2016. He was a founding member of the party in 1971.

On the day the Windsor Framework was published he made a detailed statement on social media, saying “unquestionable progress” had been made.

He added that party members should “express their views privately within the confines of the party structures”.

"Do not make perfection the enemy of a good deal,” he said. "Nor should the fear of isolation induce colleagues to accept a bad one...

"[S]erious thought must be given as to whether a better deal could be attained in the future if we do not react positively to this one; however, it is important to also consider whether in rejecting the framework (whether improved by clarifications, or not) we place unionism and Northern Ireland on more perilous ground."

• ROSS REED:

Ross Reed was a Belfast Harbour Commissioner, has an OBE for services to maritime industry, is a former chairman of the CBI in NI, and runs a haulage/warehouse firm.

He spoke to the Financial Times in 2019 during intense debate about the Brexit backstop.

The paper, which described him as having been a long-term friend of Rev Ian Paisley, quoted him as saying: “The agreement that’s on the table is not perfect, but would any agreement be perfect?”

He was reported as saying that “I want to remain part of the UK for the next 200 years on the same basis as we have at the moment” and at the same time “I don’t want to come out of the EU with no deal, under any circumstances”.

• JOHN MCBURNEY:

John McBurney is a solicitor who qualified in 1979. He sits on the Independent Reporting Commission (IRC), which monitors progress towards ending paramilitarism.

The last three IRC reports have been notable in their refusal to talk about any paramilitary groups by name; they contain no mention of the IRA, INLA, UDA, or UVF.

This is in contrast with the IRC’s de facto forerunner, the Independent Monitoring Commission, which ran from 2004 to 2011 and mentioned the PIRA some 49 times in its final report, as well as the INLA three times, the UVF 16, and the UDA seven.​

Asked why, the IRC told the News Letter it is “not an assessment body and has no operational role”.

In December Mr McBurney told a Westminster committee: “There is no doubt groups on the loyalist side see the protocol as an issue that can generate a momentum. And that is a momentum we can well do without. The way to do without it is by reaching a solution."

• ​CARLA LOCKHART:

Carla Lockhart is the DUP MP for Upper Bann since 2019. She is a business graduate of Ulster University.

Responding to the Windsor Framework, she said on social media: "On review, what is already clear is those who said the Protocol could not be touched or re-negotiated were utterly wrong.

"Their demands for rigorous implementation completely and rightly disregarded."

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• ​PETER WEIR:

​Peter Weir was elected as a UUP MLA in 1998, but opposed the Good Friday Agreement and joined the DUP in 2002. He served as a DUP MLA until 2022, and was education minister twice. He joined the Lords in 2022.

On Twitter, he has complained about a “sneering attitude” and “contempt” some have towards unionist Protocol concerns.

He likened the Protocol to “poison” in the Lords on February 27 as news of Rishi Sunak’s deal was brewing.

He said: “[A]ny deal or any other way of resolving the protocol needs to deal with the key fundamentals.

"It needs to ensure that there is frictionless trade between NI and other parts of the UK, and a restoration of the UK internal market; that democracy is restored; that our equal citizenship within the UK is restored; and, above all, that the Act of Union is restored.”

He went on to add “[W]e are not seeking some fantastical solution or indeed perfection… we seek a restoration of the basics”.

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​• ​BRIAN KINGSTON:

Brian Kingston was elected DUP MLA for North Belfast in 2022, having been a city councillor before.

He has tweeted on five occasions about the Protocol, beginning in 2021, when he called on the government to “stand up to the EU and this unsustainable Protocol”.

He tweeted out a picture of Sammy Wilson addressing an anti-Protocol rally at an Orange hall last April, and in the same month blamed the Protocol for “problems with supply of kosher meat” for Jewish people.

Since joining the Assembly in May 2022, he has variously spoken of the need to have the Protocol “rewritten”, to have “necessary changes” made to it, and to have it “replaced”.

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​• ​DEBORAH ERSKINE:

Deborah Erskine was co-opted as an MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in 2021 to replace Dame Foster and was re-elected in 2022.

She had been elected as a councillor in 2019. She worked as a party press officer and in Arlene Foster’s constituency office.

Being a relative newcomer, she has said relatively little about the Protocol.

In total, she only mentioned it in two tweets.

One, shortly before the May 2022 election, read: "We’ve a plan for NI...:

“Fix NHS / Grow economy / Keep our schools world class / Remove NI Protocol / Help working families.”

Another, last November, spoke of her wish that Rishi Sunak would visit her constituency “so he can understand how the NI Protocol has affected livelihoods here”.

She raised the Protocol twice in the Assembly too, once in a question about cross-border air quality checks, and on another occasion saying that the “protocol is costing £2.5 million per day in Northern Ireland”.