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DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson insisted his party would not be nominating ministers to a Stormont Executive until there was movement on the Northern Ireland Protocol.<\/p>\n
He spoke after talks with Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis, who travelled to Belfast to meet with all parties following last week’s historic election results which saw Sinn Féin become Stormont’s largest party.<\/span><\/p>\n Would-be first minister Michelle O’Neill said there could be no attempt by the DUP to “punish the public”.<\/span><\/p>\n Ms O’Neill and Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald also held talks with Mr Lewis, who also met the leaders of the Alliance Party, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).<\/span><\/p>\n He has urged the leaders to re-establish Northern Ireland’s ruling executive ministers.<\/span><\/p>\n The election result has piled the pressure on the UK Government to come up with a solution to its dispute with the EU over the Protocol.<\/span><\/p>\n The Protocol was designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit and imposed checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.<\/span><\/p>\n But the EU’s ‘dogmatic’ and ‘rigid’ implementation of the Protocol has been blamed by British ministers for causing significant trade disruption.<\/p>\n And unionists are concerned the agreement has been detrimental to Northern Ireland’s status within the UK.<\/p>\n The UK Government has repeatedly refused to rule out taking unilateral action to tear up key parts of the Protocol, should ongoing talks with the EU on the issue fail to reach a solution.<\/p>\n Downing Street on Monday attempted to play down reports of a Cabinet rift over whether the UK should soon scrap the Protocol.<\/p>\n Following his talks with Mr Lewis today, Sir Jeffrey said he had made the DUP’s position clear as he demanded the Protocol row was “resolved”.<\/p>\n “It is the position we have held before the election, throughout the election campaign and will continue to hold, and that is until we get decisive action taken by the UK Government on the Protocol we will not be nominating ministers to the Executive,” he said.<\/p>\n “We want to see stable political institutions, we want to be part of the Executive, we want to play our part and fulfil the mandate we were given by the people of Northern Ireland.”<\/p>\n “We are also clear given the damage and harmful impact the protocol continues to have on Northern Ireland, driving up the cost of living, harming our economy, impeding the ability of businesses to trade with our biggest market and fundamentally undermining political stability, undermining the principle of consensus politics.”<\/p>\n However, Ms O’Neill called on both the DUP and British ministers to respect the outcome of Northern Ireland’s elections.<\/p>\n “Brinkmanship will not be tolerated where the north of Ireland becomes collateral damage in a game of chicken with the European Commission,” she said.<\/p>\n “Responsibility for finding solutions to the protocol lie with Boris Johnson and the EU.”<\/p>\n “But make no mistake, we and our business community here will not be held to ransom.”<\/p>\n It has emerged that “hawks” and “doves” around the Cabinet table are at odds over Britain taking unilateral action to scrap key parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.<\/p>\n Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is reported to be leading a push for the UK to act alone in overriding the Brexit deal. But she is being opposed by Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove.<\/p>\n But Downing Street played down the reports of a Cabinet rift over the Protocol.<\/p>\n The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I think our preference has always been for a negotiated solution to fix the Protocol and we have been clear that we will take further steps if solutions can’t be found.”<\/p>\n “No decisions have yet been taken on the way forward.”<\/p>\n