The DUP collapsed Stormont because of a need to “reassure their base”, David Blevins, Senior Ireland Correspondent with Sky News, has said.
On Thursday, the DUP First Minister Paul Givans resigned from the job, insisting the protocol had undermined the principle of democratic consent.
DUP voters are furious that, because of the protocol, goods from Great Britain imported into the province are now subject to custom checks and Mr Blevins said it is those people that the DUP leadership was thinking about:
“I think they have two objectives, the first is to pile the pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson - as if he doesn’t already have enough pressure in his own backyard,” Mr Blevins told The Anton Savage Show.
“They feel that by indicating there’s not going to be a power sharing administration in Northern Ireland anymore that his Government will feel the need to step in and they’re really appealing to him… to follow the example of previous British Prime Ministers and prioritise Northern Ireland, to invest more time in this place and to recognise the seriousness of this problem.
“But I think that beyond that, ultimately as you’ve already suggested, this is about reassuring their base.
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“There’s been a great move away by the DUP electorate to more [hardline] unionist parties - in recent polling they [the DUP] were coming in at about 17%, that would be catastrophic for them in any Stormont election.
“So they’re clearly saying to the base, ‘Okay, if the British Government is not going to act to remove this border in the Irish Sea, we are going to bring down the Stormont administration.’
“And already, there is some indication from loyalist areas that some of that support is coming back towards the DUP because of that.”
Former First Minister Paul Givan and DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson
London
The Northern Ireland Protocol was signed and negotiated by Britain’s incumbent Prime Minister Boris Johnson. However, Mr Blevins believes the DUP think the beleaguered Tory’s time in No 10 Downing Street is coming to an end:
“I think in many ways they are looking beyond Boris Johnson.
“Like many people they probably feel the Prime Minister’s time is coming to an end and they are, I imagine, attempting to pile the pressure onto the Conservative Party in terms of who it chooses to be the next leader, to become the next Prime Minister and to make Northern Ireland the priority.
“And they’re very close to [Foreign Secretary] Liz Truss already… she’s the person trying to negotiate some sort of compromise with the EU around the protocol and I think they’re moving close to her because they recognise that she perhaps is the strongest candidate to succeed Boris Johnson when the time comes.”
Sinn Féin have called for an early election in the wake of the Assembly’s collapse; if a majority of MLAs then vote against the protocol, it kicks off a two year period of negotiation between London and Brussels to come up with a replacement.
Main image: Graffiti reading 'No Irish Sea border' near Belfast City centre in February 2021. Picture by: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo.
