Steve Baker urges DUP to 'choke down' and return to Stormont

NIO Minister Steve Baker encouraged the DUP to return to power-sharing at Stormont

Steve Baker has urged the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to "choke down the position they have taken" in order to avoid an early Stormont election.

The Northern Ireland Office minister said a poll would "waste time and money that could be better spent elsewhere".

He joined calls for the DUP to return to Stormont's ruling executive before the deadline at 00:01 BST on Friday.

Earlier, DUP MP Sammy Wilson said another poll was unlikely to change anything to solve the stand-off.

Mr Wilson questioned the point of calling a fresh election when his party's concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol were still to be resolved.

But speaking at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly in County Cavan on Monday, Mr Baker urged the DUP to return to power-sharing at Stormont and advised the party to trust the UK government to sort out protocol problems in its talks with the EU.

"This government and indeed the next prime minister will maintain the UK's policy on the protocol. They (DUP) should count on us to negotiate with humility and resolve, recognising everyone's interests, trying to get a deal that works for us all," Mr Baker said.

"If the DUP accept that and find it in within themselves to choke down the position they have taken, just get into the executive and do it this week, we can avoid an election which would waste time and money that could be better spent elsewhere."

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At the weekend, Mr Baker made headlines when he warned that devolution would not return to Stormont until the protocol rules were changed.

Speaking to the Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Mr Baker said that "everyone needs to understand that the legitimate interest of unionists is to end the jurisdiction of EU law in Northern Ireland".

"Now that's the hardest problem we need to solve. But we will not have devolved government in Northern Ireland until it's done.

"That means we won't be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement."

On Monday, Mr Baker suggested that some of his comments had been "misrepresented" and that he did want the 1998 deal to be celebrated.

"It's a wonderful agreement and we are all resolutely committed to it, but the point I want everyone to understand is that it is going to be difficult to see how President Biden will be coming to the island of Ireland to rejoice that agreement if we fail to sort out the protocol."

The DUP has been blocking the full workings of the Northern Ireland Assembly since February in protest over the protocol.

Sammy Wilson says the DUP will fight an election "vigorously" but it would not change its stance at Stormont

The party argues that the post-Brexit trade arrangements are harming Northern Ireland's economy and damaging its place within the UK's internal market.

Speaking to the BBC on Friday morning, Mr Wilson said his party would not re-enter government unless the protocol was changed, and it would fight any new election on that basis.

"It gives us a opportunity to reinforce our message to the unionist community that the protocol is bad for the union, and also to the wider community that the protocol has been bad for the cost of living," the DUP MP said.

"If the government were to ask themselves: 'What's the point of an election? Is it going to change anything?' I don't believe it is."

He added: "If there's an election, we will fight it vigorously. We will argue our case but at the end of the day the government is still going to face the same issues.

"Namely that we will not - and we cannot - enter an assembly where, because of the protocol, we're putting up the cost of living for everyone, and second, we're putting the union in jeopardy."

Friendship with Steve Baker

On Monday afternoon, it was confirmed that Rishi Sunak would succeed Liz Truss and become prime minister.

Speaking before the result was announced, Mr Wilson said that whoever the Conservative Party chose, the DUP would "work with them as constructively as we can".

He refused to speculate on who would become the new Northern Ireland secretary if Chris Heaton-Harris was replaced in a cabinet reshuffle.

However, Mr Wilson said he and Mr Baker had become "personal friends" during the Brexit negotiations.

He added they shared many of the same interests such as motorbikes and and held similar views on Brexit, the protocol and opposing the government's zero carbon policy.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the new prime minister will face a challenge of ensuring Northern Ireland "does not remain endlessly in limbo" without government.

She accused the DUP of "inertia and inaction, and do-nothing politics".

'No U-turn'

Meanwhile, Mr Baker said he and Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris want to remain at the Northern Ireland Office if there is a reshuffle.

"We put so much effort in to building up relations. We are a team that enjoys working together. We'd like to keep it that way," Mr Baker said.

Mr Baker told BBC News NI that the government was going to stick to its assembly election deadline irrespective of the new Conservative leader and subsequent Cabinet reshuffle.

"This is one place where we are really not going to have a U-turn," he said.

"We may well have a reshuffle tomorrow [Tuesday], we don't know, we'll wait and see.

"But for planning purposes, everyone should understand that there's going to be an election if the executive doesn't reform."