As Party Leader I try to combine my duties in London with engagements back home particularly speaking to Party members, supporters, and the wider community across Northern Ireland.
This is just a flavour of a week in the life of the leader of the DUP.
Monday
Monday morning is when we hold our regular update meetings with DUP Ministers and Committee Chairs / Deputy Chairs at Stormont to discuss upcoming issues and priorities ahead. Followed by weekly Group Meeting of all our MLAs.
In the afternoon I travelled to Westminster for the debate on the Humble Address to His Majesty the King which formed part of the Safeguarding the Union command paper and reaffirmed Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom.
Tuesday
Alongside the business in Parliament, I met with the Speaker of the House of Commons as part of his meetings with Party Leaders across the House. I also continued my series of engagements with Ambassadors in London to explain the Unionist position and the opportunities for investment in Northern Ireland.
Wednesday
During Northern Ireland Questions I had the opportunity to highlight that the first meeting of the new UK East-West Council, proposed as part of the Safeguarding the Union command paper, will have its first meeting in Belfast this month.
Later on Wednesday I travelled back to Northern Ireland to speak to Party members in Newry & Armagh about my vision for the future of Northern Ireland within the Union.
Thursday
After some party meetings, on Thursday evening I took partin a ‘Future of Unionism’ debate at Queen’s University which was jointly organised by our Queen’s Democratic Unionist Association and the Young Unionists at Queen’s. All the young people involved in putting on a professional, positive, and engaging event about the future of our Union deserve huge credit.
Friday
As with most weeks, Friday is filled with appointments and meetings in my Constituency office in Lisburn and this includes outreach to people from right across the community. The level of support for our current stance is so encouraging.
Our DUP Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive have hit the ground running and whilst some of my focus has been in London, they too have been busy this week driving forward issues that matter within their Departments.
