Jim Allister: The border must not move to Irish Sea
The suggestion of the cravenly pro-EU House of Lords Committee on European Affairs that Stormont should be given powers to control free movement of EU workers into Northern Ireland is as absurd as it is dangerous.
It is central to the constitutional integrity of Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom that our leaving of the EU is no less emphatic than that of the rest of the Kingdom.
We joined as one nation; we must leave as one nation, with no dilution through “special status” for this or any other part of the UK.
Moreover, immigration, quite properly, is a national issue, not a devolved issue.
It goes with the integrity of the nation.
Contemplating different access rights into this part of the UK would have the inevitable consequence of moving the border to the Irish Sea.
That must not happen.
Jim Allister, MLA, TUV, Stormont