Robinson says restoring Stormont was right decision

DUP party leader Gavin Robinson has said no one now questions the validity of restoring Stormont institutions, as he gave his inaugural address as leader since he took over from Jeffrey Donaldson.

Mr Donaldson stepped down in March when he was arrested and charged with a number of sex offences.

He denies all the charges.

Mr Robinson covered a series of broad themes during a wide-ranging speech as he spoke during the party's first conference since it was forced to change its leader earlier this year.

He acknowledged the difficult outcome of the Westminster election and the pressure the party had faced over restoring the Stormont institutions on the back of what some unionists saw as an imperfect deal over the Irish Sea border.

He said no one now questioned the validity of that decision.

"Earlier this year when we took the decision to participate in a reformed government in Northern Ireland, we did so on the basis of the progress achieved. We knew – and were open – that it didn't solve all the problems that befell us.

"But we knew, that after two years of negotiation, it wasn’t possible to secure more with a government in its dying days.

"We knew too, that with the likely prospect of a Labour government in the coming months, any negotiation was not going to get better. In fact, it may have been worse.

"Yes, there were some in the wider unionist family who wanted to leave all power in Westminster, with the very same people who’d let Northern Ireland down so badly.

"But we knew that the cost and consequence of having no working Assembly was impacting on people in every part of Northern Ireland and our ability to take decisions locally in the best interests of Northern Ireland."

He promised a fresh approach to politics both internally and externally and said the party must start working now towards the next assembly election in just over two years time.

Former leader Jeffrey Donaldson was not mentioned by name in the speech but there was an acceptance that the party had come through a "difficult and challenging" couple of months.

He told the conference the DUP would vote against the continuation of Brexit trading rules on goods moving from GB and NI when it comes up in the assembly later in the Autumn and urged other unionists to do likewise.

He said any reset in UK/EU relations that might lessen the impact of those rules could well take several years and the objective of any such negotiations remained unclear.

Mr Robinson leads a party which has been through a turbulent period.

In February it agreed to restore power-sharing at Stormont following a two-year boycott over the Irish Sea border.

It went back into the institutions on the basis of a deal negotiated by Mr Donaldson and is now filling the Deputy First Minister position there alongside First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin.

The conference comes just months after the DUP lost three Westminster seats in the UK general election, including that of long-standing MP Ian Paisley, the son of its founder member.

The challenge will be to put it on the best footing possible for the next Assembly election in two and a half years time.