Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to address DUP party conference for first time as leader as huge decision looms
Sir Jeffrey has refused to restore the power-sharing government at Stormont since May's election because of of the Irish Sea border, which was established as part of the Brexit deal.
Saturday 8 October 2022 02:56, UK
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will address his first DUP conference as party leader with a huge decision looming for him.
The UK government and EU appear to be inching towards a breakthrough on the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol.
The DUP has consistently argued that the Irish Sea border, established as part of the Brexit deal, breaches UK sovereignty.
Sir Jeffrey has refused to restore the power-sharing government at Stormont since May's election because of it.
But rather than scrap the Protocol, the UK government has resumed negotiations with the EU in a bid to find a compromise.
As foreign secretary, Liz Truss tabled the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to overwrite parts of the UK / EU Brexit arrangement.
But now that she's got the keys to Number 10, Prime Minister Truss appears to have had a change of heart on the issue.
Steve Baker, a former chair of the hardline Eurosceptic European Research Group, stunned Unionists last week by apologising to Ireland and the EU.
The strident Brexiter, now a minister in the Northern Ireland Office, told the Tory conference: "I and others did not always behave in a way which encouraged Ireland and the EU to trust us."
"I am sorry about that because relations with Ireland are not where they should be," he added.
The mood music hasn't just changed, the two sides have shifted from Handel's Dead March to the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever
If the UK government does a deal with the EU, Sir Jeffrey faces the toughest decision of his political life.
Does the DUP get on the bus or risk being thrown under it鈥� again?
Ms Truss will have joined a long list of Tory leaders who politically flirted with the Unionists, then ignored them.
As foreign secretary, Boris Johnson told the DUP conference that no British prime minister could countenance a border in the Irish Sea.
A year later, as prime minister, he reached agreement with the EU to establish a border in the Irish Sea.
Well-placed sources tell me Ms Truss came under huge pressure from the US president when they met recently in New York.
Joe Biden is reported to have told her and the EU to compromise and not let this issue divide them while Russia is at war with the EU.
As a result, the mood music hasn't just changed, the two sides have shifted from Handel's Dead March to the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever.
Loyalists, whose opposition to the Protocol has spilled into civil unrest at times, said it was Ireland that should be apologising for "weaponing the border question".
Mr Baker marked the latest meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London by tweeting a smiling selfie with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney and Ireland's Justice Minister Helen McEntee.
If the devolved government has not been restored by 28 October, Northern Ireland faces a second election.
The big question is: will the EU compromise enough to let Sir Jeffrey drop his boycott of Stormont?