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The DUP and TUV have both urged loyalists who are angry about Northern Ireland Protocol talks not to follow through on Sinn Fein justifications for violence.

Their comments come after the chairman of the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) David Campbell, told the BBC that there is "a credible threat" of violence in light of Protocol talks.

The LCC is an umbrella group which includes leadership figures from the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando loyalist terror groups.

Mr Campbell told the News Letter yesterday that the EU-UK deal on the protocol - the Windsor Framework - appeared to resolve trade problems caused by the Protocol, but did not resolve unionist concerns over sovereignty or unionist consent.

On the BBC's The View last night, Mark Carruthers asked Mr Campbell about reports in the Sunday Life that UVF figures were threatening to bring violence to the streets if the union was not protected in the Windsor Framework.

Mr Campbell – a former chairman of the UUP and chief of staff to David Trimble - replied: "Well, these are anonymous quotes that aren't backed up by any significant figure. I certainly spoke to leaders following reports of those comments and they certainly weren't sanctioned by the UVF leadership."

He added: "The credible threat is if unionism and loyalism is continually undermined; If the basis of the ceasefires that were agreed in 1994 are undermined, that is where we enter a period of real problems for North Ireland. But none of us are contemplating that. We genuinely - collectively across unionism - want a resolution to this protocol so that we can all move on and start to deliver decent government for North Ireland."

Mr Carruthers responded that these comments seemed "slightly at odds" with his recent comments in the News Letter where he said that if Jeffrey Donaldson accepts a deal that doesn't meet the DUP's seven tests, then Northern Ireland could be in for "a difficult summer potentially".

He noted Mr Campbell also told this paper that "elements within those organisations that are much more sceptical would attempt to brush the old leaderships away". The BBC presenter suggested that this sounded like "fighting talk".

But Mr Campbell replied: "Well, it's the realpolitik of these organisations; The current leaderships have now for 25 years, taken their organisations on a significant transformation programme away from paramilitarism... there are Young Turks in all these organisations, who perhaps see opportunities If a vacuum exists."

Mr Campbell later told the News Letter that the basis of the 1994 loyalist ceasefires - which he now sees as under threat - are that the Belfast Agreement "guaranteed no change in the constitutional position of Northern Ireland without the consent of its people".

Both the DUP and TUV responded to his comments to the BBC this morning by urging loyalists not to return to violence.

Both parties quoted Sinn Fein's First Minister Designate Michelle O'Neill, who made headlines last August when she told Mark Carruthers on the same programme that there had been "no alternative" to the IRA campaign of violence.

And both urged loyalists to follow a better example.

"The position of the DUP on violence or the threat of violence is absolutely clear," Sir Jeffrey Donaldon tweeted this morning.

"Politics and democratic processes are the only way that we will succeed in overcoming the challenges of the Protocol. Violence and/or the threat of it, is wrong and never acceptable.

"The DUP will always advocate democratic politics as opposed to arguing that there was 'no alternative' to violence as some have recently said.

"We will continue to engage with people across the community to assert the primacy of democracy and the rule of law and to dissuade people from taking the law into their own hands or turning to violence."

In a statement, the TUV urged loyalists to hold itself to a higher standard than republicans - or encouraging the break up of the union.

“There is already evidence that the mood within Loyalism and Unionism is very much to oppose the Windsor Whitewash," it said.

"It was the opposition of grassroots Loyalists in peaceful demonstrations and meetings which eventually forced political Unionism to wake up to the threat of the Sea Border.

"Unionism and Loyalism should show that it holds itself to a higher standard than those who outrageously claim that there was 'no alternative' to violence. Going down such a path would be totally counterproductive and will only play into the hands of those who are pushing for the acceptance of a deal to break up our nation. It is important that opposition, as in the past, is channelled in a way that is peaceful and within the law.”

UUP leader Doug Beattie said this afternoon that the Windsor Framework in itself is, “at the very least, a demonstration that diplomacy and negotiation works”.

He added: “We spent the past three years making the pro-union case against the NI Protocol and that has led to the EU moving from a position we were told was as far as they could go.

“The only way of resolving the current challenges Unionism faces is through democratic means. There is zero justification for any grouping seeking to exploit the current political vacuum for their own ends. My message to groupings who still exist twenty five years after the Belfast Agreement is to get off the backs of the communities you claim to represent and disband.”

Victims campaigner Kenny Donaldson, Director of Services at the South East Fermanagh Foundation said its position “has and will remain consistent - we oppose the use of violence and we also oppose any entity using the potential for violence as some sort of bargaining chip”.

However he also warned that international stakeholders needed to reflect on precedents they had set regarding violence.

"But there is also a glaring reality that needs faced up to, the great and the good of politics, some within the leaderships of our Churches and others within positions of civic leadership, whether endorsed or self-appointed have created the environment for the position and commentary reflected by the LCC,” he said.

"The Provisional IRA's political arm in Sinn Fein has been elevated and emboldened through almost three decades of political appeasement. Others have watched their sovereign Parliament, the Irish Government, the US Administration, the European Union and many others dance to a Republican dominated tune, that has created huge frustration and has inflamed already powerful feelings of injustice.

"We also have had questionable leadership offered by the Irish Government in recent years around the potential for land border checks on the Island, the current Taoiseach is amongst individuals to have suggested that violence could follow if land border checks were introduced".

"The use of violence and/or veiled threats of the potential for return to violence is not acceptable within any democratic Society. It needs to end once and for all. New leadership is required.”

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Windsor Framework and Northern Ireland Protocol: DUP and TUV urge loyalists not to follow Sinn Fein justification for violence after LCC chairman David Campbell speaks of 'credible threat'