NEW: DUP Party Exec meeting live:
JD just began speaking:
Says negotiations are over, and DUP aren’t going to get anymore.
Says we have reached moment of decision 1/
JD just began speaking:
Says negotiations are over, and DUP aren’t going to get anymore.
Says we have reached moment of decision 1/
He says after much deliberation time is now to bring it to wider party. They expected the Gov to now move with publishing legislation 2/
First challenge to JD - asked who was the policy making body within the party. 2/
JD now complaining about leaks; he says every meeting he holds gets in the hands of the media in less than an hour. Says it impacts on way DUP do business and says it undermines trust. He says party therefore operating with constraints. 3/
JD now beginning presentation. Says this is product of negotiations with Gov. Says party always opposed Protocol. 4/
Meeting now halted. Anger that meeting is being live tweeted. 5/
DUP meeting descends into mayhem. JD saying texts being sent to Jamie Bryson who is giving a blow by blow account to the meeting 6/
MAYHEM in party Exec meeting. One DUP delegate accuses PSNI officers of being the leak. 7/
JD defends police officers says “they are not messaging Jamie Bryson” 8/
JD resuming presentation. DUP enforcers now looking around the rooms. 9/
JD says in response to Windsor Framework DUP consulted. Unlike any other party. Name checks Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster 10/
JD now discussing seven tests “designed to be the measure against which DUP would discuss any future arrangements” 11/
JD says tests being misrepresented- now trying to escape from restoring the Acts of Union. Trying to explain away why his deal doesn’t restore the Acts of Union. First sign of DUP backing off 12/
JD now saying legislation will affirm sovereignty! What? 13/
JD says two pieces of constitutional legislation, including amending UK internal market act 14/
Says legislation “restores Parliamentary sovereignty” and reaffirms NI place in the Union; says offers NEW protections on Acts of Union - clearly therefore Acts of Union not restored 15/
JD ‘constitutional legislation’ sounds like utter waffle 16/
Party Chairman orders ‘PHONES OFF’ 17/
Continuing with presentation 18/
DUP meeting now halted. Fury and mayhem 19/
JD says PSNI brought in to try and block phone signals 20/
JD says effort to block phone signals hasn’t stopped the reporting from the meeting. 21/
JD says there will still be checks and declarations on green lane. 22/
JD still discussing legislation. Talking about reduction in checks. 23/
DUP meeting is utter chaos and mayhem 24/
JD says legislation will be published by Gov & SIs. Said Party Officers met last week & agree to the next stage of informing members as to “progress” (his word, wouldn’t be mine) reached 25/
PSNI still being consulted by senior DUP HQ staff. They are trying to use technology to sweep the room 26/
Back to important business: reaffirming Parliamentary sovereignty simply states the obvious; not restoring Art 6 but instead affirming a subjective ‘guarantee’ 27/
Lengthy power point will continue for a while. Two pieces of legislation to get through: constitutional and amendment to UK internal market act. In short, this is thin cruel. 28/
John Robinson has left the building. One delegate apparently smiles and mutters ‘some job today’ 29/
The legislation being outlined in the power point as ‘constitutional legislation’ doesn’t do anything of substance. A complete fig leaf. 30/
The UK Internal Market legislation not much better; they do know I presume the UK internal market act can’t be amended by SI? Absent from presentation so far 31/
BBC reporting Party Exec have ‘already agreed’ on deal. Untrue. No they haven’t. What was said that they had agreed to move to the stage of informing members as the party would not have to “collectively make a decision”. Inaccurate reporting by BBC 32/
DUP spinners trying to brief media Party Exec has agreed. NOT TRUE. Not what was said. BBC is wrong, and spinners are trying to mislead. Agreed to move to stage of informing members in order to THEN move to reaching a collective decision. 33/
Still more effort to identify the source of sunlight rather than the detail. Power point continuity. Understand Gavin Robinson will deliver some of the presentation. 34/
Party Chairman keeps sporadically shouting “PHONES OFF”. But someone reminds him some
need to keep them on to monitor my Twitter. Presumably for those at the back who can’t hear 35/
need to keep them on to monitor my Twitter. Presumably for those at the back who can’t hear 35/
EU law will still apply. 36/
Claims of reductions on checks so “80% of goods” will flow freely. Seems to be defending a slimmed down Irish Sea border 37/
This presentation is really extraordinary, it truly is. The effort to spin and u-turn is almost beyond belief. I’m still in amazement at the constitutional segment. UK internal market one not much better 38/
JD focuses on NI-GB trade. Seems to fail to appreciate that’s not the issue. Sources say senior party members looking absolutely furious. 39/
Is tonight delivering a serious blow to the supposed deal? The detail is now public, with more to come 40/
Shortly the floor will speak and make contributions 40/
Suggested now in meeting turn of electronics; someone mutters “but JD needs it for his power point”. Chaos 37/
At this stage, I almost feel like I should make a contribution 41/
UK Gov will publish the legislation before DUP ‘jump’. This week expected 42/
Meeting again getting angry with much grumbling 43/
There will be contributions from the floor now. They won’t be reported for now. The important public interest was not internal party matters but rather the ‘deal’. That has now been exposed. Job done. Stand firm. Keep your word. 44/ ENDs.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
