Ulster Unionist Chief Whip, Steve Aiken OBE MLA, has called on Jeffrey Donaldson MP and his DUP colleagues to end the nonsense of saying that the DUP`s ‘red lines remain intact’.

Mr Aiken said:

“Even by DUP standards, Jeffery Donaldson`s claim on UTV`s View From Stormont, that all the DUP`s ‘red lines remain intact’ is just not credible and verges on fantasy.

At the Conservative Party Conference on 2 October 2018, DUP Leader Arlene Foster tweeted the following:

“Meeting with Prime Minister just ended. NO border in the Irish Sea will ever be acceptable to unionists throughout the UK…regulatory or otherwise.’

On 4 December 2017 Arlene Foster said:

“Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom. We will not accept any form of regulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the United Kingdom.’

“Yet this week the DUP are advocates for a plan, which in HMG`s Explanatory Note in Paragraph 4, states, ’The proposal set out in this note would see regulatory checks applying between Great Britain and Northern Ireland..’

“These statements are totally incompatible and highlight the ridiculous nature of DUP propaganda as they attempt to cover up the fact that they have surrendered a key principle and that is the maintenance of the economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom, which the EU and some within the current Conservative Government will seek to exploit to the detriment of the Union. Yet Jeffrey Donaldson is wheeled out by the DUP, day in, day out to defend the indefensible. Jeffrey Donaldson and his colleagues should end this nonsense and admit the reality of their position - they have accepted the principle of a border in the Irish Sea.”