DUP promises to extend Stormont boycott until Northern Ireland budget is boosted

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Northern Ireland’s largest unionist party has vowed to extend its boycott of Stormont’s political institutions until London reforms the region’s budget and provides guarantees on its place in the UK.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said local Monday council elections held last week had delivered “a renewed mandate to return to the government and guarantee the solutions we need”.

The DUP has boycotted the assembly and power-sharing executive in Stormont since last May’s regional election in protest against the post-Brexit trade rules, which he believes undermine the region’s position in the UK and its internal market.

Despite the Windsor frameworka deal agreed by London and Brussels to iron out obstacles to Brexit, Donaldson said further changes were still needed “to restore our place in the UK and our ability to trade with the rest of the UK”.

The party retained all of its seats and suffered no losses to the harder-line Traditional Unionist Voice, raising expectations that it could swing back towards returning to Stormont, potentially this autumn.

But Donaldson told reporters, “I believe the mandate we’ve been given in the council election is a mandate to finish the job.” He said he would meet with Chris Heaton-Harris, the British secretary for Northern Ireland, this week to push for a “needs-based budget” for the region.

The current Barnet’s formula, designed to ensure devolved UK regions receive proportionate government funding from London, “is not paying off,” he said. In Stormont’s absence, Heaton-Harris set a tough budget and criticized “years of fiscal mismanagement” of the region’s finances.

Earlier, Gavin Robinson, a DUP MP, told the BBC that given estimates from the region £800m budget shortfallthe only option at the moment was to cut spending and “this is not good enough for Northern Ireland”.

“If we see – and are to see – a return to devolution, it will need to be accompanied by a fundamental recalibration of the way Northern Ireland is funded,” he said.

Sinn Féin, the pro-Irish unitary party, scored a bigger-than-expected victory in Thursday’s election, winning control of six of Northern Ireland’s 11 councils and 144 of 462 seats. The DUP retained its 122 councillors.

“There has been a very clear view now twice in the course of a year from the electorate that they want Stormont back in his seat,” said Conor Murphy, former Sinn Féin finance minister.

Jayne Brady, head of the region’s civil service, summoned five major parties to talks on Thursday over a crisis as politically sensitive cuts loom in health services, education, nursing training and apprenticeships.

But the DUP wants more than money for the region. Heaton-Harris has promised legislative changes to reassure unionists that Northern Ireland’s place in the UK is secure after Brexit puts a customs border in the Irish Sea.

A former DUP special adviser said the party was seeking a commitment that no preparations would be made for Irish reunification until a referendum on the issue was held.

“The electoral base has approved what we want. Heaton-Harris – it’s over for you,” said the DUP adviser, who said he saw only a 50:50 chance of Stormont resuming after the traditional union marching season in July.

“If they can’t get it back by this fall, they might as well wait a [UK] Labor government,” he said. “Why should you negotiate with the British government again?”

Another former party strategist was more optimistic, seeing a 60% chance Stormont would return before Christmas.

“More likely than not,” he added. “But it’s certainly not inevitable.”