DUP Green Lights Return To Power Sharing In Northern Ireland

The Democratic Unionist Party has agreed to return to power sharing in Northern Ireland after a post-Brexit boycott lasting nearly two years.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson announced in the early hours of Tuesday morning that his party was willing to rejoin the region's political institutions, once Rishi Sunak's UK Government implements new legislation — which could take place in a matter of days.

The DUP, the second biggest political party in Northern Ireland after Sinn Fein, collapsed power sharing in early 2022 out of protest against post-Brexit trading arrangements for trade with Great Britain. The party said these arrangements, first negotiated by ex-prime minister Boris Johnson, had fundamentally undermined Northern Ireland's place in the UK, and since then has been in discussions with the UK Government about changes to them.

Speaking to the media in Belfast shortly after midnight on Monday, Donaldson confirmed that after many months talks with Sunak's government to address the DUP's concerns, his party had finally agreed to accept their offer.

"I am pleased to report that the party has now endorsed the proposals that I have put to them," said Donaldson, the MP for Lagan Valley.

"The party has concluded that subject to the binding commitments between the DUP and the UK Government be fully and faithfully delivered as agreed, including the tabling and passing of new legislative measures in Parliament, and final agreement on the timetable, the package of measures in totality does provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Northern Ireland Executive, thus seeing the restoration of the locally-elected institutions."

Chris Heaton Harris, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said in a statement in the