DUP deal to restore Stormont could be ratified at Monday night meeting: Doug Beattie

Doug Beattie said he believes a deal to restore Stormont could be ratified by the DUP’s executive on Monday evening.

The Ulster Unionist leader said that if Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has managed to broker a deal that has the backing of DUP members, then the ball will be back in the court of Chris Heaton-Harris in terms of what the government can do to ensure a smooth return to power-sharing.

"I think the DUP will make a decision tonight – certainly internally as a party – and I think they will tell the government what that decision is likely to be, whether there is enough that has been done or not, and then they will wait to see what the government then do,” Mr Beattie told Good Morning Ulster.

"I do think that the decision has been made [by the party officers]. I’m looking at this from within my own party structures, and whenever I take something to the party executive, it will be the party executive that makes that decision, so I think we are in that game now”.

Asked if he thought it was unlikely that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson would be have called the meeting of the DUP’s executive without having established that he had the backing of the party officers, Mr Beattie said: "I think they have had those discussions…. that the party officers have pretty much said, ‘look this needs to go to the executive,’ that the executive will make the decision, and that’s the decision made.

"So I think that is pretty much where we are now – that the [DUP] executive will decide, I think they will decide tonight… but they will expect the government to move and do something tomorrow, certainly no later than Wednesday”.

Mr Beattie expressed concern that unelected members of the DUP’s executive will be provided with details of the proposed deal to restore Stormont before he gets sight of the proposals – and said that the UUP would not automatically re-enter a new Stormont administration if his party is “kept in the dark”.

He said: “The government can very quickly turn this around, because they can bring us into the tent, they could let us know what is going on… and then at least we would have an understanding of what this deal is”.