![\"DUP](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_GettyImages-2172617560.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMr Robinson said \u201cwhilst Sinn Fein\u2019s focus is on a border poll\u201d, his party\u2019s focus was on making Northern Ireland work<\/p>\n
DUP leader Gavin Robinson (Image: Charles McQuillan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
People in Northern Ireland face a political choice between \u201cStormont or Starmer\u201d, DUP<\/a> leader Gavin Robinson<\/a> has said.<\/p>\n In his weekly message to party members ahead of the second anniversary of the return of Stormont<\/a>, Mr Robinson<\/a> argued that devolution is \u201cnot perfect\u201d but said abandoning it would be \u201ca serious mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n The devolved powersharing institutions returned at the start of February 2024 following a two-year suspension when the DUP collapsed the Executive in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements.<\/p>\n When the Assembly and Executive were restored, Sinn Fein<\/a> was the largest party, with Michelle O\u2019Neill taking the position of First Minister with the DUP\u2019s Emma Little-Pengelly<\/a> as deputy First Minister.<\/p>\n Mr Robinson <\/a>said his party had never created the impression that the return of Stormont would be \u201ctransformational\u201d.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe DUP was clear that re-establishing the institutions would not magically fix public services.<\/p>\n \u201cYears of underfunding and the consequences of that were never going to be resolved overnight.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd today I am under no illusion about the pressures people continue to face.<\/p>\n \u201cI see the condition of our roads and I know how many people are still waiting far too long for medical appointments.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cBut we did know this, Northern Ireland is better governed by locally-elected representatives, accountable to the people we serve and who we live beside, than by semi-detached decision-makers with no real stake in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n The DUP leader <\/a>said 2027 would see the next Assembly election and \u201cpeople are entitled to expect much more\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Robinson<\/a> said \u201cwhilst Sinn Fein\u2019s focus is on a border poll\u201d, his party\u2019s focus was on making Northern Ireland work.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cThat means facing the reality that our civil service is structurally broken with a lack of expertise and soaring sickness levels.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means listening to the voices in business about rates and recognising that our planning system is grinding growth to a standstill.\u201d<\/p>\n The DUP leader<\/a> added: \u201cThe choice ahead remains exactly as it has been, devolution or direct rule, Stormont or Starmer.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who argue for direct rule ignore the reality that our policies will then be shaped by people whose priority is those they are accountable to, not those of us in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n \u201cDevolution is not perfect. An Executive of opposites is not going to be an exemplar for decisive decision-making, let alone collegiality.<\/p>\n \u201cBut abandoning it would be a serious mistake.<\/p>\n \u201cProgress doesn\u2019t happen overnight, but it doesn\u2019t happen at all without devolution.\u201d<\/p>\n In his statement marking two years since the return of Stormont, TUV leader Jim Allister said unionists should ask \u201cwas it worth it?\u201d.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWhat did we get in return?<\/p>\n \u201cMore protocol parcels border, veterinary medicines border, new car border, more than \u00a3190 million spent on border posts to partition the UK, trade diversion building the stepping stone of the all-Ireland economy, more EU law.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd because of all that a weakened union and unionism robbed of the only real leverage it had.\u201d<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage<\/strong> here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Robinson said \u201cwhilst Sinn Fein\u2019s focus is on a border poll\u201d, his party\u2019s focus was on making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[6408,1998,528,1144,285,11528,11191,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-732030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-dup","9":"tag-gavin-robinson","10":"tag-labour-party","11":"tag-northern-ireland","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-sinn-fein","14":"tag-stormont","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115987214972538874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}