DUP Leader Hits Back After Nancy Pelosi Wades Into Northern Ireland Debate

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks to reporters in Washington on May 12, 2022. Win McNamee/Getty Images

The leader of Northern Ireland’s second-largest political party, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, reacted today after the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said the U.S. Congress could block a free-trade agreement with Britain if the Northern Ireland Protocol is jettisoned.

Pelosi said it was “deeply concerning” that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appeared to be planning to ditch the protocol, which was negotiated with the European Union to govern post-Brexit trading arrangements, and she claimed it could undermine the Good Friday Agreement.

Donaldson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), told the BBC: “Nancy Pelosi states that the reason she is concerned is because the Good Friday Agreement might be undermined, but the protocol is undermining the agreement. That is absolutely evident.”

“The protocol has changed some of the key principles of the Belfast Agreement and it has made it impossible to have powersharing on the basis of consensus because not a single unionist MLA elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the recent elections supports that protocol,” he added.

In an unprecedented intervention Pelosi said in a statement: “The Good Friday Accords are the bedrock of peace in Northern Ireland and a beacon of hope for the entire world. Ensuring there remains no physical border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland is absolutely necessary for upholding this landmark agreement, which has transformed Northern Ireland.”

“It is deeply concerning that the United Kingdom is now seeking to unilaterally discard the Northern Ireland Protocol. ... if the United Kingdom chooses to undermine the Good Friday Accords, the Congress cannot and will not support a bilateral free trade agreement with the United Kingdom.”

DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson with party colleagues, speaking at the podium in the Great Hall of Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast, Northern Ireland on May 13, 2022. Liam McBurney/PA Media

Donaldson retaliated by saying: “If Nancy Pelosi wants to see the (Good Friday) agreement protected then she needs to recognise that it is the protocol that is harming and undermining the agreement and that is why we need to deal with it.”

He emphasised: “We will not re-enter the political institutions in full until we see decisive action taken on the protocol, that is the mandate I sought from the people of Northern Ireland and on the strength of the votes that we received we have made clear to the Government that decisive action is required.”

Northern Ireland Minister Conor Burns wrote on Twitter: “The absolute priority of the UK government is protecting the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the institutions that spring from it. As Speaker Pelosi knows we seek an ambitious FTA [Free Trade Agreement] with the U.S. But there can be no connection between that and doing the right thing for NI [Northern Ireland]. None.”