Stormont: Sir Jeffrey says DUP approaching a decision

The DUP is "approaching the time" for a decision on returning to Stormont, its leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said.

The party walked out of government 22 months ago in protest at post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland.

It has been involved in talks with the government aimed at reaching a deal to allow power-sharing to be revived.

"I haven't come this far to plan for failure," said Sir Jeffrey, adding that the final stages of a negotiation could be "the most challenging".

"We've made significant progress," he continued.

"Undoubtedly, we're approaching the time when we will be able to examine where we've got to, the progress that's been made and perhaps come to some decisions," he told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported that Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin told his party Fianna Fáil he believed a deal could be done "within days".

Sir Jeffrey dismissed that as "speculation" and said he had not provided a timeline to anyone.

Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the government stood ready to legislate to "protect" Northern Ireland's place in the UK internal market.

He added such a move would sit alongside a deal to restore the Northern Ireland Executive and added the government was prepared to work "at pace" to achieve this.

Mr Sunak was responding to a question by Sir Jeffrey, who asked the government to amend the UK Internal Market Act to "guarantee and future-proof" Northern Ireland's access to the UK internal market "in all scenarios".

The DUP leader said he was "refining" those issues with the government.

Any deal will need the approval of the DUP's officers who run the party and hold influence over its policy decisions.

Sir Jeffrey said no meeting of officers was planned for Thursday.

He said he did not know if it would be possible to reach an agreement by the time of the Christmas recess on Tuesday.

"We're not yet at the end of the process," he continued. "Of course I want to get an outcome as soon as possible but I want it to be the right outcome because we don't want to be in this position again in six months' time."

SDLP MP Claire Hanna told BBC News NI's The View on Thursday night that there was a sense that "most of the ducks are in a row" with regard to any potential deal.

"I would be very surprised if this didn't land before Christmas," she said.

"It's possible to do it and why wait."

Sir Jeffrey said he didn't come this far to plan for failure so he does sound like a man who is inching closer to that point where the party is going to make a call about whether or not they will return to Stormont.

What he said this morning is interesting, combined with the mood last night in and around the talks at Hillsborough Castle - there was sense that there is a move on, that something could well happen over the coming days.

Of course a lot of that was fuelled by what we heard yesterday from the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

When he talks about working at pace now to get this over the line, we know recess is coming on Tuesday so that in a sense is creating some kind of a time line.

It has to be heavily caveated because we do know that deals can unravel pretty quickly.

That said we also know that when things fall into place deals can happen very quickly, as was the case with the Windsor Framework.

There's lots to play for and if the government gets its way we could be inching closer.

TUV leader Jim Allister told The Nolan Show that what he had heard about the negotiations felt like a "sell out".

He said that if the talks are "merely about tinkering" and did not address "the problem of Great Britain to Northern Ireland trade where sovereignty has been surrendered to the EU", then "it's not scratching the surface".

He then called on Sir Jeffrey to "stand your ground".

"You gave seven pledges, you've no mandate to do any deal short of that and, if you do, there needs to be a fresh assembly election because you went to the country twice on those seven tests."

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron has thrown his support behind the ongoing push to restore the Stormont institutions.

He said he was "hopeful" that talks between the DUP and Number 10 would lead to the return of power sharing.

Speaking to a Lords committee on EU affairs, the former prime minister praised the Windsor Framework as a "superb piece of negotiating".

"I know how difficult it is to negotiate when everything is public, their set up managed to keep some of those elements private and led to a very successful negotiation.

"I'm hopeful that will lead to the restart of the Northern Ireland institutions which is being discussed at the moment," he added.

Talks between the government and Northern Ireland's largest political parties over a new £2.5bn financial package were extended on Wednesday.

The package would include a lump sum to settle public sector pay claims and a new "needs-based" funding formula for public services.

It would also allow overspends from last year and this year to be repaid over five years.

However, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said he is prepared to go back to the prime minister and see what more is possible, after party leaders asked for more money.

Northern Ireland has been without devolved government since February 2022, when the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) withdrew support as part of its boycott of post-Brexit rules overseeing trade in and out of Northern Ireland.

Government in Northern Ireland requires the largest unionist and nationalist parties to share power in a coalition government.

Without the DUP's support, the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed, leading to senior civil servants running government departments instead of ministers.

Westminster's announcement of a financial package came as Northern Ireland's five main parties met Mr Heaton-Harris for the first roundtable talks since July.

Parties have had three days of talks at Hillsborough Castle, centred around financial issues.