DUP pledges to seek an end to EU law and the Irish Sea border in general election manifesto

The new DUP leader also said that the debate around the Safeguarding the Union deal should have been “grounded in a greater degree of cautious realism” – but defended the gains the party had made on the Protocol.

Acknowledgement of the continuation of the Irish Sea border and a pledge to remove its root cause – EU law – will remove a huge problem facing DUP candidates in the general election.

On the surface it is a return to the party’s original stance when the Protocol was imposed on Northern Ireland by the UK and EU – but critics will want to see the details of the DUP’s new policy and what it does to attempt to achieve its aims.

Gavin Robinson told the party executive in Lisburn: “Our clear message going forward is that we are campaigning to send a strong message to a new Government, whether Labour or Conservative, that building on the progress to date, we will continue to fight to fully restore Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom, including removing the application of EU law in our country and the internal Irish Sea Border it creates.

“We will continue to argue the case for the full primacy of the United Kingdom internal market and we will resist all attempts to undermine its integrity”.

It comes just months after Gavin Robinson defended the principles underpinning the Windsor Framework – such as the ‘red lane’.

The red lane exists because European Union law applies here under the Windsor Framework, meaning Northern Ireland’s ports are treated as the entry point into the EU single market.

EU law is a prerequisite of Northern Ireland’s unfettered access to the EU single market for goods – keeping standards here aligned to the rest of the trading bloc. That is something Brussels has shown no interest in moving on.

However, the UK-EU deal also extends into citizens rights – raising big questions about the ability of the UK government to legislate here on issues such as immigration and legacy – where courts have ruled that EU law takes precedence.

The DUP has now also confirmed the existence of the Irish Sea border, a reality which has become increasingly apparent in the months since the deal the party secured to restore Stormont.

Gavin Robinson highlighted the progress he said the party had made in its endeavours on the arrangements to date.

“You will recall that the Stormont Brake mechanism was not part of the original Protocol and the fact that Members of the Assembly now have this mechanism is because we pushed for it and secured it.

“Amending the Protocol to remove dynamic alignment and injecting democratic control was a significant step forward and we will use it to full affect.

“Come October, we will not hesitate to vote against the continued application and, drawing upon the new mechanisms at our disposal, we will continue our quest through the inbuilt review”.

There was also thinly veiled criticism of his predecessor’s approach to selling the deal.

“Some of the claims made in defence of the paper when published were based on significant further work that had yet to be completed and again, it would have been preferable had the debate been grounded in a greater degree of cautious realism about what was achievable when dealing with a Conservative Government more wedded to the European Union.

“Progress made, grounded in principle, with more still to do”, he said.

In Wednesday’s News Letter Dan Boucher – the DUP’s former policy advisor who quit over its approach – said DUP policy is in effect one of union with the Republic of Ireland's economy. Whether the party’s new policy is enough to assuage critics such as Mr Boucher, still a DUP member, remains to be seen.

However, the logic of the new position is that it the DUP no longer supports the underpinning of the overarching trade arrangements under the Windsor Framework – which depend on continuing EU law.