East Derry DUP MP Gregory Campbell
It’s after a deal made by leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson with the British government to restore power sharing has been criticised by some party members.
Speaking to the BBC, East Derry MP Gregory Campbell denied there was a split. “No, there is not,” he said when asked on the BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme.
He was asked about a speech made by Sir Jeffrey to party members in Newry and Armagh on Wednesday in which he said unionists must recognise they no longer live in a place where “70% of the population are red, white and blue British”.
The DUP leader said the choices unionists make today “will either grow support for Northern Ireland or will cede ground to the enemies of the Union”.
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Campbell of the statement: “It is blatantly obvious and has been for some years.
“Northern Ireland’s place in the UK will be secured when an increasing majority of people in Northern Ireland want to stay within the UK. The Protestant community are not a majority.”
He added: “The position is, and everyone in the party and every unionist outside the party should adhere to it, which is the Protestant community alone are not the guarantors of staying within the United Kingdom.
“It is everybody in Northern Ireland that believes Northern Ireland would be better served and more prosperous and more beneficial to all sections of the community within the United Kingdom. everybody should recognise that.
“And everybody on whatever side of the argument they may be on the Protocol and Windsor Framework and whatever else knows that because to deny that is to deny the factual position.
“We grow Northern Ireland when more people support its position within the UK,” he said.
Party colleagues Lord Dodds and Lord Morrow have criticised the deal in a newspaper article and also in the House of Lords.
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