Jim Allister: Our legal challenge against the Irish Sea border is not a substitute for robust political action against the protocol

I very much welcome the planned judicial review challenge to the iniquitous Northern Ireland Protocol and count it a privilege to have helped get this to the starting blocks.
By Jim Allister
Published 22nd Feb 2021, 19:39 BST
Updated 22nd Feb 2021, 19:50 BST
The people in the legal action against the Irish Sea border, seen in August 2019 on the Republic of Ireland side of the Monaghan-Fermanagh land border. From left Kate Hoey, then Labour MP, Ben Habib, then Brexit Party MEP, and Jim Allister MLAThe people in the legal action against the Irish Sea border, seen in August 2019 on the Republic of Ireland side of the Monaghan-Fermanagh land border. From left Kate Hoey, then Labour MP, Ben Habib, then Brexit Party MEP, and Jim Allister MLA
The people in the legal action against the Irish Sea border, seen in August 2019 on the Republic of Ireland side of the Monaghan-Fermanagh land border. From left Kate Hoey, then Labour MP, Ben Habib, then Brexit Party MEP, and Jim Allister MLA

Without the former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib and the former Labour Party MP Baroness Hoey we would not be at this point.

I am pleased that all strands of unionism are joining in this necessary effort.

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This is, I believe, a timely encouragement to all in Unionism.

Anyone who cares about the integrity of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland’s place therein will support this endeavour.

Whereas the protocol is doing immense damage to commerce and thus our economy, it is its pernicious constitutional damage which concerns us above all.

Extended ‘grace periods’, derogations and easements will do nothing to ameliorate the protocol’s fundamental assault on our constitutional position.

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At the heart of this challenge will be the irreconcilable conflict of the sovereignty-busting protocol with the foundational constitutional statute which bound us into the United Kingdom, the Act of Union 1800 and particularly Article 6 thereof.

Article 6 of the Act of Union was the building block and foundation of the Union. It was to the effect that there would be free and frictionless trade across and within the entirety of the United Kingdom, from which every citizen could benefit.

On January 1, article 6 of the Act of Union was trashed by the protocol,

The superseding of the cross-community mechanism, as the means of measuring consent for key decisions in the Stormont assembly — through the Statutory Instrument introduced by the secretary of state Brandon Lewis, which purports to set aside this protection in the scheduled 2024 vote in the assembly —- will also play a central role in this challenge.

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In joining in this judicial review challenge I make it very clear that it is not a substitute or alternative to sustained and effective political action against the protocol.

The imperative is for both, not least because the judicial review route will be protracted. Indeed, the more the implementation of the protocol is disrupted the less sustainable it becomes.

• Jim Allister QC is MLA for North Antrim and leader of Traditional Unionist Voice

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