A changing of the guard within the DUP but still no whiff of the barnstorming conferences of the past

It has been a tough year for the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Jeffrey Donaldson resigned as leader in generally known circumstances; the party lost three seats in the Westminster election; and Brexit with its attendant Irish Sea border complications hasn’t turned out so well.
Gavin Robinson was seen as the heir apparent to Donaldson but because of those circumstances he was rushed into the leadership much earlier than probably he would have liked.
His two main tasks therefore at his party’s annual conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in south Belfast on Saturday were to consolidate his leadership and to galvanise his party so that it could face the challenging future with a sense of renewal and vigour.
On Saturday he succeeded in his first mission; the second one is work in progress and may prove more daunting.
Robinson delivered a competent if not terribly inspiring speech to delegates, promising reinvigoration to get the party back on track.
His was the one party success story of the Westminster election, holding his East Belfast seat against the challenge from the Alliance leader Naomi Long. It was clear from chatting to delegates and the rousing reception he got for his speech that he is popular with both what can be called the more moderate and the traditional wings of the party. He can be a unifying leader, which is a positive for a party seeking to re-establish its position in the North’s political firmament.
In the conference centre there were 200 seats, all filled for the new leader’s speech, with some more standing at the back and sides of the room. In the past Ian Paisley as leader could draw up to 600 delegates to his barnstorming annual conferences.
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These are changed times, as Robinson and most in the DUP well realise. But at least the party is not in denial. It was clear from Robinson’s speech and from some of the other carefully selected speakers there is acknowledgment the party is on the back foot and must work hard to regain the support of those who have shifted to the Traditional Unionist Voice party or to the Ulster Unionist Party or even to Alliance.
No surprise then that there were calls for unionist unity and an end to infighting which, as experience tells, is easier said than done.
The emphasis at the conference was on the younger voices such as Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart and fresh-faced Assembly members Deborah Erskine and Jonathan Buckley. No speeches from the likes of veterans such as Nigel Dodds, Gregory Campbell or Willie McCrea and sadly – he does good standup – no knockabout from Sammy Wilson. And no sigh of Ian Paisley junior who lost North Antrim to Jim Allister.
There was a sense therefore of a changing of the guard. Gavin Robinson, as the face of the new guard, promised a “new approach” while being rather hazy on specifically how he will rebuild the party. At least after the conference he knows he has consolidated his leadership. The hard part is restoring lost fortunes.