DUP Leader Jeffrey Donaldson has confirmed the party will vote against the government’s Windsor Framework NI Protocol deal on Wednesday. Releasing a statement this afternoon, Donaldson said that “whilst representing real progress the [Stormont] “brake” does not deal with the fundamental issue which is the imposition of EU law by the Protocol”:

“Since the announcement that the “Stormont Brake” is to be debated and voted upon in Parliament on Wednesday there have been a number of indications that this vote will be read as indicative of current positions on the wider Windsor Framework package.

Our Party Officers, the only decision-making mechanism in our party on these matters, met this morning and unanimously agreed that in the context of our ongoing concerns and the need to see further progress secured whilst continuing to seek clarification, change and re-working that our Members of Parliament would vote against the draft statutory instrument on Wednesday.

We will continue to work with the Government on all the outstanding issues relating to the Windsor Framework package to try to restore the delicate political balances within Northern Ireland and to seek to make further progress on all these matters.”

There had been hopes within Downing Street that while the DUP might abstain, they wouldn’t outright oppose it. Turns out the DUP had other plans…