Irish fiscal firepower no match for UK: Sammy Wilson

He was speaking after the release of figures from the Office for National Statistics showing Northern Irish people get roughly £2,200 more spent on them than the national average.

When it comes to unification advocates, the figures “should make them hide their head in embarrassment”.

“Because they’ve got to explain to the two million people in Northern Ireland how you’re going to sustain your living standard, being part of a small nation which doesn’t have the fiscal firepower to sustain the kind of support which Northern Ireland clearly still needs,” he said.

He said that during the Troubles, whilst the mainland UK was investing in its infrastructure, the Province was locked in a battle to combat bombings and bloodshed, and there are still “huge deficits in our infrastructure” as a result.

“It’s one of the compelling arguments Sinn Fein have never been able to answer,” he said. “What would you do if you were in a united Ireland situation?”

He said that, in contrast to Peter Robinson’s earlier recommendation that unionists should prepare for a united Ireland, “what we should be doing is making a case for the UK”.

“Because the case for the United Kingdom is very strong. Leaving aside what people might think of historically and symbolically what the UK stands for, economically the case for remaining in the UK is unanswerable.”