Stormont: DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to brief members on possible deal

DUP executive members are to be briefed later on Monday on a possible deal to restore power-sharing at Stormont.

Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will provide a "detailed update" on the current political situation.

However, BBC News NI understands there is no meeting planned with party officers and only they have the power to sign off on a deal.

The DUP collapsed the executive nearly two years ago in protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements.

The party has been in talks with the UK government seeking changes to the arrangements which were agreed in the UK-EU Windsor Framework deal.

It stated the meeting will be at a "secure venue" and the location and directions will be circulated later on Monday.

The DUP has more than 120 executive members, including MLAs, party officers and others.

In the email sent to those members, the party's chief executive wrote: "I apologise for the short notice of this meeting but due to circumstances beyond our control the officers... have determined to waive the normal notice period for calling a meeting."

Executive members were also asked not to discuss details of the meeting with the media.

Could this be the day when the DUP ends its two-year Stormont boycott?

Or will it be yet another staging post in a long, drawn out negotiation?

On Friday, the 130 executive members were given a time but not a location for the gathering and were only told it will be at a secure venue.

The location will be disclosed today as the party seeks to keep the meeting under wraps.

As promised, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will provide the executive with what he called a detailed update on the current political situation.

He is also due to meet his MLAs.

But it's understood there is no meeting planned with party officers and only they have the power to make the big decision.

"If the UK government think that, as a party entitled to enter the executive, they can keep us in the dark, they are making a big mistake," he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, TUV leader Jim Allister, Baroness Kate Hoey, Ben Habib and Jamie Bryson have jointly published a paper setting out their opposition to any deal.

They warned the DUP against "implementing the union dismantling protocol" which they say the party once opposed.

In a statement they said: "The perversion and constitutional obscenity of a partitioning border in the Irish Sea would be given permanency through its acceptance by the DUP, if they return to Stormont now."

Last week, the deadline for restoring devolution was extended to 8 February; if there is no executive in place by then, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris will be under a legal duty to call an election.

It is understood he may instead put new governance arrangements in place including a greater role for London.