If ever there was a reason for unionists to collapse Stormont, it is this border

As a member of the Conservative and Unionist Party and former Conservative councillor, I am very worried about the actions taken by Boris Johnson’s government.

The fact that it has been overseen by Michael Gove, a politician whom I previously trusted as a committed unionist, is particularly troubling.

The imposition of tariffs within the United Kingdom, for this is exactly what has been agreed, (despite Gove’s attempted sugar-coating and the ill-informed cheerleading from Conservatives in England), is an unprecedented and disastrous move.

Although Theresa May’s UK-wide backstop was widely panned by unionists and eventually sunk by Boris and the ERG, it was ultimately a better scenario for the Union than this protocol (although I realise that others do not think this).

It may have been badly sold, but the principle of the United Kingdom leaving the EU as one country, even though this meant agreeing common standards on goods with Europe, was a sound one.

It is clear from the saga of the last four years that the UK was never going to abruptly leave all economic co-operation with the EU. A gradual changing of existing trading arrangements, starting from a position of full alignment, was a far more sensible approach, and indeed this is the vision that I signed up to as a leave voter, and the vision that the likes of Gove, Boris and other Vote Leave figures consistently told us was achievable.

As for unionism, it is clear that our interests have been incredibly badly served by the bungling of the DUP, who squandered a position of genuine leverage under the May government in exchange for total pathetic irrelevance under Boris’ mighty English majority.

The only hope for unionists now is immediate unity, and new leadership, with an active campaign against this protocol. If ever a case could be made for collapsing Stormont in order to make the Conservative and Unionist government — the party of Ian Gow, Airey Neave and Norman Tebbit — listen to unionists for once, then it pains me to state that this is it.

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