Intrigue and rumour at Conservative conference over Northern Ireland Protocol, with DUP notably absent from the Tory gathering this year

The apology from the NIO minister Steve Baker to Ireland over how Brexit has been handled put the spotlight on the Irish Sea border, even though the matter was barely discussed in any of the major events at the gatherings of Conservatives in Birmingham.

With the DUP notably absent from this year’s conference, and with EU-UK relations seemingly now warming up again after a long freeze, a rumour swept the annual Tory event that a deal over the protocol had already been reached.

This was then dismissed.

A senior DUP source said that they had not attended because the “Tories know what they need to do and have known it for six years”.

The NIO minister Lord Caine insisted that his colleague Mr Baker’s comments did not mean that the NI Protocol Bill, which seeks to overhaul the Irish Sea border, is now in doubt.

“It is emphatically not a change of policy,” he told the BBC, “but we have always been clear from the Command Paper in July 2021 that we wanted a negotiated outcome that was always our preference but at the same time we will not hesitate to take forward the legislation that is currently before parliament.”

The absence of the DUP from this year’s conference is in sharp contrast to the Tory gathering in Manchester in early October 2019, when the party still held the balance of power in Westminster.

The then prime minister Boris Johnson had attended a packed DUP reception, to a cheering crowd of DUP members but mostly activists who had queued to attend the much-in-demand occasion.

The next day Mr Johnson had delivered a keynote speech to Conservative delegates which did not mention Northern Ireland. His first iteration of the Northern Ireland Protocol was issued that day, initially with DUP support, albeit on the understanding of a Stormont lock and also that NI would come fully out of the EU customs union.

Even last year, despite Mr Johnson betraying the DUP later in October 2019 by agreeing to a full protocol that was more or less entirely what the EU demanded, the DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson attended a Tory conference that was smaller than usual due to Covid.

The News Letter asked the DUP why it was not present this year.

A party spokesman replied: “We engage with Conservatives in Westminster, we engage with the secretary of state locally as well, and we had a team in Brussels ramping up engagement back in summer.”

But a senior DUP source said: “The Tories know what they need to do and have known it for six years. There is no point in holding an event at which Liz Truss utters platitudes.

“It is good that the protocol bill is going to the lords, but we need the government to expedite the bill. Rather than attend conference, we want action.”

Yesterday a trade academic tweeted that he understood there had already been a deal between the EU and UK.

The News Letter was present at a conference reception hosted by the EU ambassador João Vale de Almeida (who also referred to the sudden improvement in relations with the UK) when the Guardian journalist Lisa O’Caroll put this tweet to the UK foreign secretary James Cleverly. He merely said “interesting” before advisors pulled him away.

The NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris was similarly unavailable for interview but seemed to suggest he was unaware of any such deal. EU sources later dismissed the claim.

Mr Baker had on Sunday apologised for his previous “ferocious” stance on negotiations with the EU and acknowledged “humility” is required to restore relationships with the EU and Ireland,

He told Irish broadcaster RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland programme yesterday: “I’m very convinced that, if we get into a negotiation, without pre-conditions, and together in a spirit of goodwill, we can de-escalate this problem and we can get a deal which works for everyone, respecting everyone’s legitimate interests, north-south and east-west.”

Mr Baker, formerly a member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of MPs, also said: “And that really is why, if I have to eat a bit of humble pie in order to restore broken relationships to get that done, well, I’m happy to eat a bit of humble pie.”

Richard Bullick, a DUP advisor, noted a report on the website Politico which paraphrased Mr Baker as saying that the protocol bill was “more of UK wish list than bottom line.

Mr Bullick said on Twitter that this signalled “a clear departure from the comments of the PM who said ‘... my preference is for a negotiated solution, but it does have to deliver all of the things we set out in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill’”.

The Tory cabinet minister and noted Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg appeared to distance himself from Mr Baker’s comments.

He told a Telegraph event at the Conservative conference: “I don’t know specifically what he’s referring to, what behaviour he means, so it’s difficult to know what apology has been given.”

Meanwhile, European Commission (EC) spokesman Daniel Ferrie confirmed the EU and UK will meet this week for technical level talks, adding the EU will approach them “constructively” and it remains “committed to finding joint solutions”.

He told reporters: “They both agreed that solutions needed to be found around the protocol. There will be technical level talks, discussions, exchanges this week, the details of which of course need to be worked out.

“All I would do is underline from our side that the EU is committed to joint efforts, it’s committed to finding joint solutions, we need to find these solutions to bring predictability, certainty to people in Northern Ireland.

“And I think in general, if you look back, it’s fair to say the EU has always approached these talks constructively and we will continue to do so.”

Talks between the UK and EU have stalled in recent months although Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and the EC’s Maros Sefcovic enjoyed a “good conversation” on Friday.

The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill has already cleared the House of Commons and will be debated at second reading by the House of Lords, which is expected to consider it at length, next week.

Mr Ferrie, pressed about Mr Baker’s remarks and asked if the EU is willing to engage in fast-track negotiations while the Bill exists, said: “I think we’ve shown now for a long time that we are constructive, we’re open to finding solutions, we have come up with ideas as to how we can overcome some of the challenges related to the implementation of the protocol.

“We stand ready, we have been standing ready for a long time now to find those solutions, to negotiate, that’s all I can say.

“I’m not particularly fussed about terminology around one or other type of talk. There will be technical level colleagues and experts discussing this week and we’ll take it from there.”

Thomas Byrne, the Irish Minister for European Affairs, welcomed the change in the “mood music” but warned that both sides had been here before.

“What we need to see this week… we have had the good political atmospherics. By the way, we have had them before, but I think it is probably stronger now.

“We have got to make sure that the technical talks, which I believe are due to start this week between the EU and the UK, that they move on. Because that is where we fell down the last time.”

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