The DUP has not forgotten about the sea border - and what's been agreed must be delivered, Gavin Robinson tells the Belfast News Letter's political editor David Thompson on Saturday September 21 2024
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00:00So you said today that you wanted to reassert the DUP as the pragmatic voice
00:05of unionism. How do you think that's going so far?
00:09Well I think, Damiel, over the course of the last number of months as I reflected today, I've been
00:13encouraged by the support and the willingness that we have to build
00:16cohesion within the party and reflect ourselves positively in our community.
00:21I think the executive not only has the opportunity but it has the ability to
00:26deal with some of the challenges that have been presented toward it. More importantly, the rationale and the basis for
00:32productively responding to the needs of people in Northern Ireland. Anyone that's
00:36been here and been to conferences over the last number of years will have a sense of just how
00:40positive the buzz was and the atmosphere was around this conference this year, so it's been very enjoyable.
00:45One of the, probably the largest sort of round of applause you got was on your
00:50position on the protocol. How realistic is it that the DUP or any
00:56news party can make any further inroads into the trade arrangements and beyond
01:00the trade arrangements, the rights provisions that now exist in Northern
01:04Ireland which are going to cause ongoing friction for UK legislation?
01:11So there's a number of parts to that. The first is to say that what is there already, agreed and
01:16published should not be renegotiated. So as to recognise delay on parcels and customs, for
01:20example, in the last 48 hours, we can say if that is in the interest of industry
01:26and if that is to allow for a smoother transition to the new arrangements, fine.
01:30But as an indication of something to change or a commitment not being honoured, then we
01:35would have a problem with that. Going forward then, there's a number of
01:39opportunities that will be reviewed, triggered because of the vote taken at the Northern Ireland
01:43Assembly. I criticise the mechanism of the vote. In fact, I think it's an inversion of all the
01:47protections that should be at the heart of our system. But it's a vote that we
01:51will use and a review that we will use productively for businesses in Northern
01:55Ireland. On the overarching relationship between the European Union and the United
01:59Kingdom, I've said very clearly that we will engage productively in those
02:03discussions but we will look at those discussions and what our government is
02:07negotiating with the European Union through the prism of the United Kingdom
02:10and how does it best help and assist to remove the barriers that were imposed
02:15upon us by Westminster. So it's not to say that I, we, one party or all of unionism in
02:21Northern Ireland has the ability to upturn or overturn the position and the
02:26imposition that we've been faced in. But it's to give the sense and to give the clear
02:30indication today that we don't forget about those issues, that they are important to
02:34us constitutionally, they're important to us. We've got a balance between what we do
02:38in relation to devolution, we took the right decision to see devolution restored
02:43but that doesn't mean that we've forgotten or taken our eye off repairing
02:46the harm and damage created by a conservative government who is more
02:50interested in delivering for England than delivering for the United Kingdom.
02:53Alex Easton got a mention a couple of times today from yourself and from
02:57Jonathan Buckley. Is there a sense that unionism could have more agreed
03:04independent candidates in certain constituencies and is that what what you
03:08meant when you were talking about your reaching out to the other unionist leaders?
03:12I think it's clear that both Jim and I were in a position to endorse Alex.
03:16Talked about endorsing Alex, thought that was the right thing to do but couldn't
03:19get collective agreement across unionism and Alex was able to come through in
03:24spite of the lack of willingness on the part of one unionist player to endorse him.
03:28In Fermanagh and South Tyrone Jim and I had agreed on an agreed unionist
03:32candidate but we could not get agreement and that seat was lost and clearly
03:36Lagan Valley and other constituencies where I was able to demonstrate that
03:40though there were 29,000 pro-union votes cast in Lagan Valley, unionism lost a seat
03:45through division. Nothing else, the seat was lost to division so there's a huge
03:49opportunity I think you can demonstrate after election after election where
03:53there are benefits in cooperation and collaboration and I will engage in those
03:57discussions as I did with Jim previously with Mike in the weeks to come.
04:01Could that be best done outside the party politics? In other words is
04:05independent or independent candidates a route to greater success for unionism?
04:09Don't know. We can talk about all of that. I think what is very clear to say is as
04:14it comes to unionist infighting I'm not interested. I won't be interested. I don't
04:20go on your pages or the pages of other newspapers continually attacking other
04:24unionists because it doesn't help us. It doesn't help collectively what we say is
04:29our stated aim and that's to protect Northern Ireland's place in the United
04:33Kingdom and strengthen those bonds. So that's how I'll be going forward. I hope
04:37others will engage positively in those discussions. I hope they do because our
04:42people say they need to and our people recognise the cost of not doing so as
04:47has been demonstrated in the last election.