Brexit and Protocol: Jim Allister attacks Tory Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker for ‘gratuitous folly’ – adding that an apology is due to the people of Northern Ireland

Mr Baker had initially stirred unionist ire on Sunday when he apologised to the Irish government and the EU for his previous “ferocious” attitude towards Brexit.

And he has since re-affirmed this in an interview with RTE, saying that “I’m sorry relations between the UK and Ireland have been soured by the Brexit process” and that “we’ve got to de-escalate these tensions”.

Click here for a fuller account of his comments.

Mr Baker has been in post for three-and-a-half weeks, as junior minister to NI secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

TUV leader Jim Allister, one of the Assembly’s most vocal Brexiteers and opponents of the Protocol, told the News Letter Mr Baker’s remarks are “gratuitous folly”.

He said: “When you stand back and survey the whole Protocol issue, it’s quite clear that the aggressor and the one that should be apologising, is Dublin and Brussels.

“Because they conspired together to make the price of Brexit the exclusion of Northern Ireland from full British sovereignty.

“If anyone has to apologise it should be Dublin and Brussels.

“He was a committed Brexiteer. I don’t take any of that away from him.

“I just don’t understand what he thinks he has to apologise for. Saying the UK should be an independent country making its own laws and governing itself is nothing to be ashamed of.”

What is shameful, he said, is the way the Tories ended up handling Brexit, by signing up to the Protocol.

Mr Allister concluded: “If he’s apologising to anyone it should be to the people of NI for leaving them adrift under the EU single market.”

More from this reporter on Brexit and the Protocol:

• Ex-Northern Ireland Secretary suggests ‘there may be grounds’ soon to call a referendum on Irish re-unification

• ‘The tentacles of the Northern Ireland Protocol reach way beyond mere cargo and ports – and you could see the problems coming from outer space’

• Public body declares that in spite of Brexit Northern Ireland must ape the EU’s laws on human rights – or it will launch court fights