DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson to hold 'crunch talks' over Protocol

By Press Association

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson has said he will have a “crunch meeting” with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss next week over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

He said he has given “time and space” for negotiations between the UK and EU after threatening to withdraw his ministers from the Stormont Executive.

“Our position has been clear and if agreement cannot be reached quickly – and I have given time and space for these negotiations, I paused the actions that I intended to take when I saw that the EU and the UK Government were coming together to negotiate – I have tried to give time for those negotiations to make progress, but this cannot go on indefinitely,” he told reporters in Co Fermanagh.

“We’re now six months on from the UK Government’s command paper where they said six months ago that conditions had been met to trigger Article 16.

“And six months later nothing has happened.

"That is not a sustainable position and if the UK Government isn’t prepared to act, I am.”

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says he will have a “crunch meeting” with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss next week over the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol: pic.twitter.com/T6rsgreIxk

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Sir Jeffrey said he is meeting Ms Truss early next week, describing it as “very important for me”, which will “help to determine the direction in which the government is travelling”.

“Is there, as Liz Truss says, still a commitment to trigger Article 16 if agreement can’t be reached with the EU?

"That’s what she is saying publicly and I want to test that, I want to explore with her what that means, and particularly, what is the time scale for triggering Article 16 if these talks, as it appears at the moment, are not going to be successful,” he added.

Sir Jeffrey said he wants to see Stormont continuing to deliver, but he needs an outcome on the protocol talks.

“I want to see Stormont continuing to deliver, I want my ministers to continue working but I am very clear that we need an outcome on the protocol within a very short space of time,” he said.

“I know that people will say, ‘but you said that in December’.

“I have tried to be reasonable, I have given time and space for these negotiations, I have waited to see what happens, I will talk to Liz Truss and see what she has to say, and then we will have to make a judgment as to whether we believe the UK Government is going to deliver on the commitment they made to safeguard Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market or not, and if they’re not, then they have dishonoured the agreement which formed the basis on which Stormont was restored and that is not a sustainable position.”