Letter: Loyalist fears on migration are fair but they should focus instead on NI Protocol

The legitimate concerns held by many over immigration have added fuel to the resentment burning within unionism since the imposition of the Northern Ireland Protocol

The ongoing collaboration with the implementation of European Union law by both the DUP and Ulster Unionist Party only further adds to a sense of powerlessness.

However, it is essential that loyalism does not get embroiled into potentially lawless street protests directed against immigrant communities.

Such protests will only distract from the campaign against the NI Protocol which is the most serious constitutional threat ever faced by unionism.

The protests will also only prove to be futile whilst the Irish Sea Border remains in place.

In reality neither Westminster nor the Northern Ireland Executive at Stormont can fully control the level of immigration into Northern Ireland, even if they were inclined to do so.

It was established in court last year that that under the terms of the Windsor Framework, EU law takes sovereignty over British law, with regard to both illegal immigration and refugee policy within the Province.

The EU bureaucrats who shamelessly pass laws in Northern Ireland without any democratic representation from its citizens will take no notice of the scenes of disorder seen in Ballymena.

If unionists want to see a controlled immigration policy in the province they must first restore full British sovereignty.

However this struggle cannot even properly begin as long as unionist politicians continue to implement EU law through the executive.

As long as Stormont remains fully operational (however incompetent) then the political establishment in Westminster will consider the protocol to have been a success.

As a consequence the current Labour administration is not going to take notice of unionist concerns on immigration nor anything else.

This will also be true of any future Tory/Reform UK administration.

It is essential that the TUV, Order Order along with grassroots Anti-protocol activists now show leadership.

These organisations must seek to channel the current grassroots anger into a more constructive campaign against the protocol.

The first goal of such a crusade should be to turn unionist public opinion against continuing with devolution by publicly pressurising both the DUP and Ulster Unionists to withdraw from the executive.

The issue of immigration must not be dismissed.

However unionism’s focus must be on resisting EU law as opposed to its citizens who live here.

Kirk McDowell, Belfast BT5