Allister says now is not the time to 'roll over' - and warns unionists against selling their heritage

The TUV leader posed a series of questions posed to DUP and the government in a social media video outside Stormont’s Parliament Buildings.

He said: “What price unionism? What price my unionism? What price your unionism? Today is a good day to consider that.

“Is unionism to be told that we can live under an Irish Sea border – if the price is right? Are we to be told that we can live under foreign EU laws – that we don’t make and can’t change – if they pour a few more billions into [Stormont]? Is unionism being readied to be told that we can accept the suspension of Article Six of the Act of Union if they grease our palms a little more?

“Let’s be very clear. In answering the question ‘what is our unionism?’ it may come to this: is our unionism about cash, or about conviction? Is it about pounds or about principles?

“Certainly TUV has no difficulty in making it very very clear that there is no price that can buy acceptance of the iniquitous Union-dismantling protocol. Whose purpose and aim – and whose end result will be – the creation of a transition out of the United Kingdom, through economic unity on the island of Ireland, into an all-Ireland.

“Unionism surely has not come this far in opposing the protocol to roll over. For if we do, then for you, for me, for our children and our grandchildren – we are accepting that never again will Northern Ireland be a full part of the United Kingdom.

“And that we are indeed in the transition that the protocol is designed to produce.

“Now is the time for unionism to stand strong. Not to weaken. Think of Sinn Fein – for three years they stayed out of this place [Stormont]. They stood resolute and strong for what they believed in and eventually they got it. Their price was paid. But for unionism the expectation is – give up, roll over, accept what you can.

“No. Accepting the protocol is to accept our own destruction. And that is not worth the baubles of executive office in this place. So I say again – unionism needs to steady, stay strong and refuse the blandishments, the cajoling, the coercing to buy us out of our heritage for a mess of Stormont porridge.”

The DUP has recently hit out at other parties they described as “content to pocket any gains made by the DUP but [who] have done nothing to help get a better deal for Northern Ireland”.

They said critics were content to attack them rather than “assist in campaigning for the best possible deal for the people we all represent.”

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