Talks between the DUP and the UK government to create the conditions for the restoration of the Stormont Assembly have not concluded, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said.
The DUP leader was speaking after Tánaiste Micheál Martin suggested the negotiations had “more or less come to a conclusion”.
Mr Donaldson insisted gaps remain, adding his party is set to meet the UK government later this week.
“The talks have not come to a conclusion, no one in government has said that to me, and in fact we’re hoping to meet with the government later this week again. Those talks continue,” he said.
He also said he noted findings of a LucidTalk opinion poll published in the Belfast Telegraph on Monday as indicating support for his party “continues to increase”.
The poll suggests that while Sinn Féin remain in the lead with 31 per cent of support, the DUP have narrowed the gap to 28 per cent, up two points from a previous poll in August.
In terms of the other parties, the poll found that Alliance is up one point to 16 per cent, the UUP is on 8 per cent, down two points, the SDLP remains on 6 per cent, and the TUV is down one point to 4 per cent.
The DUP withdrew from the Stormont institutions last year in protest against the internal UK trade barriers created by the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The UK and EU agreed the Windsor Framework earlier this year in an attempt to address unionist concerns about the protocol, but the DUP has indicated it will not return to Stormont until the London government provides further assurances over Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.
Last week DUP leader Donaldson said he could not be certain that powersharing will return by the end of the year.
The LucidTalk poll also found that almost two thirds of unionists feel strongly against Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol, believing that the DUP should not return to Stormont until it is scrapped.
The poll is based on 3,046 people took part in an online poll conducted from October 27th to 30th, and was scientifically weighted to reflect the region’s population.
On Monday, Mr Donaldson said his party are “working hard” on the gaps to secure “an agreement that unionists as well as nationalists can support”, and a “sustainable basis for the restoration of cross-community consensus, which is critical to powersharing”.
“I don’t determine my political strategy based on polls, I am focused on what I need to do which is to restore Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and its internal market, but I note the trend in these polls that support for the DUP continues to increase,” he told the BBC.
“I think that demonstrates that most unionists recognise what we’re trying to achieve here and are supportive of it, and I think that strengthens our hand in the negotiations.
“As the seven tests say, we need to see Northern Ireland’s economic rights under the Act of Union respected and protected in law and our ability to trade with the rest of the UK restored, and that’s what we’re working towards and we made real progress, but there are still gaps that need to be closed.”
