The UK Government needs to “get serious” in its negotiations with the DUP about a return to government at Stormont, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has told MPs.
Giving evidence to a Westminster committee, Mr Eastwood also said that many people in Northern Ireland believe the DUP’s refusal to return to the powersharing institutions is because they do not want a nationalist as first minister.
The Stormont Assembly remains dormant as the DUP seeks further assurances from the UK Government about post-Brexit political and trading arrangements following the signing of the Windsor Framework.
The framework, negotiated by Rishi Sunak earlier this year and approved by Parliament, proposes reduced checks in goods travelling directly to Northern Ireland from Great Britain to reduce trade barriers within the UK.
The Northern Ireland Affairs committee is investigating the operation of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement 25 years after the peace deal was signed which created the Stormont Assembly.
Mr Eastwood was asked about his call for the Irish Government to have an increased consultative role in Northern Ireland while the Assembly and executive are not functioning.
He said: “We could have direct rule (by Westminster) very quickly, we had a budget passed on Monday night by the British Government.
“There is no role at all for anybody other than the unionist tradition right now in the governance of Northern Ireland.
“A greater role for the Irish Government does give more voice to what the Good Friday Agreement was about.”
Mr Eastwood also called on the UK Government to “get serious” with the DUP in its negotiations to restore the executive.
However, DUP committee member Carla Lockhart said that there was a perception of an “intolerance for the unionist viewpoint”.
She added: “What we are asking for is solutions for our businesses that are impacted by the (Northern Ireland) protocol.
“You only have to look at manufacturing, agriculture, all of those different industries which are key pillars within our country and for the prospering of our country. We want solutions for them.
“These issues sit very firmly within the UK Government’s gift and it is important that you recognise that and that we get those solutions.”
She added: “It does, to the unionist community, seem that you are quite happy for there to be a border down the Irish Sea, but not one on the island of Ireland.”
Mr Eastwood responded: “I am one of the people who argue most strongly to not have economic borders anywhere. I am a real believer in the customs union and the single market.
“Unlike your own party which argued for us to be pulled out of those institutions which took us out of the biggest trading block on the planet.”
He added: “We are open to listening and we are trying to give space but there comes a moment very soon, I think, that the British Government are going to have to say to the DUP: ‘You are either in or you are out, because what more do you want?’
“I think the Windsor Framework was a victory for the DUP and you should take it and run with it.”
Mr Eastwood continued: “You have got more or less everything you asked for in the Windsor Framework.
“Do you know what people really think? They don’t think it (the DUP’s refusal to form an executive) is anything to do with the protocol.
“I don’t know what the real reason is, but I think a lot of people think it’s because there is going to be a first minister from a nationalist perspective.
“When people stop me on the streets of Derry and anywhere else, they think they just don’t want a nationalist as first minister.”
Ms Lockhart said her party leader Jeffrey Donaldson had made it clear that was not the case.
Mr Eastwood also told the committee that he believed a “live conversation” about constitutional change was beginning.
He said if a united Ireland did not accommodate the unionist tradition “it is not worth having”.
Mr Eastwood added: “I don’t think we are ever going to achieve our full potential as part of the UK, I just don’t believe that.
“I look across the border at what is going on in Dublin, the massive economic advance. Every major company in the world is based in Dublin.
“Constitutional change isn’t just about changing a flag over a building, it’s actually about embracing the ideas of a new Ireland which is all the traditions of the island coming together in a different constitutional set-up.”
