Carla Lockhart: The speed and scale of support for the petition shows the anger at the NI Protocol

On Thursday we launched a Parliamentary petition to scrap the NI Protocol. With 100k signatures in just over 24 hours, there is no doubt about the level of opposition to the protocol.

With such a groundswell of opinion in support of invoking Article 16, the fingers-in-ears-reaction from the protocol loyalists of Sinn Fein, SDLP, Alliance and the Irish government, to unionism expressing what is an entirely legitimate and reasonable position has been remarkable.

Telling everyone who opposes the Great Britain-Northern Ireland trade barrier to ‘dial down’ demonstrates the protocol loyalists’ commitment to consensus politics.

Indeed, this patronising approach comes from some people who when they feared the EU border would be at Newry were posing with sledge-hammers.

Yet, they have audacity to lecture about being calm.

We need unionism to stand united. We need to advance our cause through Parliament. We need the government to not only talk about change but take real action immediately.

Northern Ireland’s Protocol loyalists and the EU bureaucrats have shown their disdain for unionism but this campaign is not going away. Northern Ireland deserves and demands that there is unfettered trade between Great Britain and NI.

Carla Lockhart, DUP MP for Upper Bann

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