Tracey Magee: DUP don't want to be duped again by Boris Johnson's government

Earlier this week the government published its Northern Ireland Protocol Bill and was greeted by almost universal criticism from the EU, the US administration, the opposition benches, the House of Lords and, perhaps most importantly, many of its own backbenchers.

Just a matter of days later though it has failed to move the bill to the next stage despite expectations that the second reading would go ahead on Monday 20 June.

Speculation is rife that the government has decided to play hard ball with the DUP by insisting the party commits to restoring devolution first.

When I asked a DUP source about the possibility of the party making such a move the response was clear: “It’s a non-starter and they (the government) know it.”

The DUP believe they have already been duped by Boris Johnson who signed off on the NI Protocol against their wishes. They don’t want a repeat.

The party believes its concerns about the Protocol were ignored for months by the government, the EU and the Irish government and it was only when it walked out of the Stormont Executive that people finally started to pay attention. As a result it insists its only leverage in what has become a power play is its continued boycott of the Stormont institutions.

It’s not something the party will give up easily and especially not on the promise of a government it doesn’t trust. There is also the complication that the DUP has welcomed the bill in its current form, but what if it’s amended by MPs? The government, on the other hand, wants to see devolution restored following the publication of the bill. This week Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told the DUP “to get on with it".

There is also the argument that a DUP commitment to return to government could persuade wavering MPs and peers to support what is, undoubtedly, controversial legislation The DUP and the government are now in an unofficial stand-off with Westminster set to go on its summer holidays from July 22.

As always in politics, time is a factor.

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