Gavin Robinson to tell DUP conference the party will change 'internally and externally'

In an extract from the speech he will deliver to party members at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Belfast in Saturday, the East Belfast MP will outline a “new approach” – with two and a half years until the next election.

Mr Robinson was thrust into the leadership overnight when the former leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was arrested and charged with historic sex offences – charges he denies.

Despite – or perhaps because of – the circumstances under which he took the leadership, Gavin Robinson has secured approval from all the various wings of the party so far.

It remains unclear exactly where he intends to take the party over the coming months and years – and there is little hint of major policy changes in the extract given to the media in advance.

While it does hint that there won’t be any radical change of approach, with the focus remaining on delivering for Northern Ireland, the speech contains a promise for change “internally and externally”.

He promises “a new vision and a new way” and emphasises the “need for delivery”.

The DUP boss will say: “Although the next electoral test is some two and a half years away, we must use the season ahead wisely.

“What we plant now, we must be ready to harvest, not for the DUP, but for Northern Ireland.

“The work has already started and will continue in the weeks ahead.

“If the message of Easter reminds us of anything, it’s that the darkness of Good Friday has passed; we won’t live in the shadows of yesterday but walk in the light of today and for the hope of tomorrow.

Addressing unionist critics, he will say: “For too long, too many within unionism have thrived on attacking one another. Let me say very clearly, I am not interested. Our electorate is not interested.

“For our part I am not prepared to be part of a cycle of Pro-Union in-fighting between people who should be working together and who say they share the same goal”.