The BBC’s Enda McClafferty today reports on DUP leader Gavin Robinson criticising the deal negotiated by his predecessor and his predecessor’s protegé…one Gavin Robinson.
As Enda reports here …
” Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson has accepted his party oversold the deal to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland.
Mr Robinson had been accused of backtracking on the deal he helped negotiate to restore power sharing.
It followed a speech on Wednesday where Mr Robinson appeared to contradict previous messages delivered by the DUP leadership.
He was speaking after being ratified as the DUP party leader.
He told party members that, despite the deal negotiated with the government, the Irish Sea border remained in place.”
For many, this is an admission of what was obvious, that the Irish sea border was not removed by the deal which restored power-sharing. It is also likely that the DUP leadership were well aware of the mismatch between what they were claiming they had accomplished, but a return to Stormont whilst admitting they had failed in achieving their seven tests would likely have been impossible. They needed a fig leaf at the time.
Robinson seems to have judged admitting that it was a fig leaf is a better strategy going into an election than sticking to a position that nobody else believed, probably not even himself.
Jim Allister, who has made opposition to the protocol/framework the centrepiece of his campaign was quick to react…
“Mr Allister told BBC News NI that the DUP leader’s words showed his TUV party was right about the deal “all along”.
“I think the fact that the DUP has had to find reverse gear on their own spin raises a fundamental issue of trust,” Mr Allister said.
“The DUP told us that under their deal – a deal which is indelibly marked with the fingerprints of Gavin Robinson – they told us the Irish Sea border was gone, EU law was blocked, our place had been restored in the United Kingdom.
“We said none of that was true and now they’ve had to backtrack to confirm what we said all along.
“Now that does raise a fundamental issue of trust between the DUP and the electorate,” the TUV leader insisted.”
Prospects for further movement on the protocol seem dim however.
There have now been three rounds of negotiation regarding bespoke arrangements for Northern Ireland post Brexit. There was the original protocol, which was amended to become the Windsor Framework, which was amended again with the DUP-Conservative deal. Each negotiation has ended with the same result, Northern Ireland is to some measure detached from the rest of the United Kingdom to protect the open border on the island of Ireland. With the Conservative party heading to a likely defeat in five weeks time, it would be fair to say a Labour led government will be far less likely to indulge the DUP should they demand a FOURTH bite of the apple.
Perhaps the best the DUP can hope for is that Labour ameliorates the Irish sea border by softening the trade barriers erected between the United Kingdom and the European Union in recent years for everyone, but that will involve beginning to unwind Brexit itself.
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