Letter: It would be a mistake for unionists to boycott the Stormont vote to remove cross community consent

Re the letter by A.W. Oliphant (‘Unionist parties should agree to boycott protocol vote,’ September 13)

While I agree in the letter that cross community consent will be dis-applied undermining the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement in effect rewriting the agreement to allow for a simple majority vote on such a contentious item as the Northern Ireland Protocol.

However to boycott the vote, as Mr Oliphant suggests to deny it credibility, would be a missed opportunity.

The vote later in the year will be one of the few times that our MLAs at Stormont will get to clearly oppose the Northern Ireland Protocol as part of the withdrawal from the European Union legislation.

I believe it would be a great mistake for any unionist MLA or the unionist parties to boycott the vote as this would be taken as an abstention and portrayed as not being that concerned.

As all unionists are clearly still against the NI Protocol and its Windsor Framework, they must vote to confirm this and show they are in favour of a renegotiation when the opportunity arises.

Stevan Patterson, Castlederg