David Campbell: The DUP are right to stand by their electoral pledge

Conor Burns MP would be taken much more seriously if his government had by now delivered an end to the Irish Sea border and sufficient material change to the NI Protocol to repair the breaches to the Belfast Agreement that its imposition caused.

Instead he is suggesting that the DUP should break their electoral pledges on the basis of a bill that has not been enacted, let alone implemented. And if he is really so concerned about the absence of an executive here why does he not introduce emergency legislation at Westminster to enable NIO ministers to assist with measures to alleviate the cost of living crisis?

After all, he is part of a ministerial team that has over-ridden the Stormont executive and assembly on issues like abortion, legacy, and Irish language, and they did these things through Westminster even when the assembly and executive were functioning.

The DUP is right to require action, not words. They told the electorate what their strategy was and they received the overwhelming mandate from the unionist population to implement it. Why should they be the party that must resile from their position? The nationalist parties all know that there is no cross-community support for the protocol.

They all know that the Belfast Agreement has been breached, and they all know that if their position had been undermined by a protocol that had instituted a hard border on this island they would have crashed the executive immediately. Their hypocrisy is breathtaking, and their weaponising of the hardship facing families this winter is disingenuous and disgraceful.

David Campbell, Ex UUP MLA, Loyalist Communities Council chair, Co Antrim