The Windsor Framework and the future of the Northern Ireland Assembly
Charlie Boyle
This essay will outline the DUP's motivations for campaigning for Brexit, their response to the Northern Ireland Protocol, and how this led to the negotiation of the new Windsor Framework. It also considers whether the Windsor Framework is indeed the marked step up from the old Protocol that the UK government claims it is - and what the response to the new agreement means for the future of the Northern Ireland Assembly. By campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union in 2016, it was clear that the DUP aimed to further divorce Northern Ireland from the Republic and the EU, and reinforce ties to mainland Britain. However, demonstrated by the party's outrage at: first, the Brexit withdrawal agreement that contained the Northern Ireland Protocol; and now, the new Windsor Framework, it is clear that the DUP is not satisfied that Northern Ireland's identity as part of the UK has been strengthened. In fact, they feel the exact opposite is true. The general consensus within Unionist circles is that the de facto border in the Irish Sea and extensive customs checks when importing goods from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland due to NI remaining in the EU single market, has placed NI firmly within the EU sphere of influence. A diametrically opposite outcome to that which they had first aimed to achieve when campaigning for Brexit. The party's initial outrage at the outcome of Brexit is epitomized in the actions of more than 20 of the 27 DUP MLAs at the time, and 4 of the party's 8 Westminster MPs, all of whom signed a letter declaring no confidence in the party leader and First Minister, Arlene Foster. Subsequently, she was forced to announce her resignation on the 20th of April 2021, almost entirely due to her part in Boris Johnson's Northern Ireland Protocol. The Protocol agreed that all goods travelling into or through Northern Ireland, including goods travelling from mainland Britain, had to undergo inspections and document checks, regardless of their final destination (even if they were to stay in Northern Ireland). The party proceeded to elect the Paisleyite and highly traditionalist, Edwin Poots, as leader. He, in turn, nominated his loyal advisor, the hard-line unionist Paul Givan as First Minister. These two senior appointments embodied the attitude of DUP members at that moment and the bitterness felt throughout the party over the perceived betrayal by their Westminster allies. However, on the 17th of June 2021, even before Poots had nominated Givan as first minister, the DUP chairman and other senior party members had sent a letter to Poots urging him to delay the nomination of Givan as first minister (in protest of the decision by the British Government to introduce new Irish Language legislation in Westminster). Poots ignored these calls, and consequently, senior party members met to discuss the ousting of him as their leader, subsequently leading to his resignation shortly thereafter. Givan was told he would be required to resign as first minister when a new party leader had been chosen; however, he ended up remaining as first minister until early February of 2022. The new party leader was declared on the 30th of June 2021. This was to be Sir Jeffrey Donaldson - at the time the DUP leader in the House of Commons - who announced he intended to resign his seat in Westminster, and proceeded to run and successfully be elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the
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