Loyalist Community Council joins NIO in defending meeting over Brexit and Northern Ireland Protocol

The Loyalist Community Council (LCC) was launched in October 2015 with the backing of the UDA, UVF and the Red Hand Commando.

In November the Independent Reporting Commission said republican and loyalist paramilitaries remain a “clear and present danger” and that as the end of the Brexit transition period approached, “the possibility of a heightening of tensions reinforces the urgency of dealing with the ending of paramilitarism”. 

Today LCC Chairman David Campbell said the “cordial but tough” meeting with the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) took place online on January 19 at the request of the LCC after several weeks of “the aftermath” of the Brexit Withdrawal agreement.

“Our community at large is seeing a considerable amount of potential disruption and concern over any diminution over Northern Ireland’s constitutional position within the UK,” he told BBC Talkback.

Therefore he asked for a briefing on the government position and “the position going forward under the new [NI] Protocol” which he said was “only sensible” to ensure the absence of street protests with young men and women “out in the streets getting criminal convictions”.

However SDLP MP Claire Hanna said that the fact that the meeting took place “beggars belief”, asking why the LCC even exists in 2021 and “why is the NIO playing into the spin that they are the voices of loyalist communities?”

But Mr Campbell accused her of “rank hypocrisy” adding that her party is “sitting in government with another party that every security analysis over the past 20 years has determined is governed and directed by a proscribed organisation”.

Ms Hanna responded that loyalist paramilitaries have got “derisory votes” when they have stood for election. She added that “we sit in government with many parties that we don’t agree with or subscribe to the values of because they achieved a large number of votes”.

An NIO spokesman said: “The NIO meets regularly with groups and individuals from across all parts of the community. It is important that we hear a diverse range of views. We will continue to engage widely to ensure that the UK government is able to meet its objectives in Northern Ireland.”

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson also firmly defended the meeting.

“There was no complaints when we had nationalist delegations tottering down to Dublin to talk about the threat to peace,” he told the Nolan Show.

Asked whether he thinks the Irish Sea customs border threatens peace in NI, he replied: “Well of course I would not advocate that but I have said all along that is not a view which I would encourage people to take but I do think that people will look and see that the threat of nationalist violence was sufficient to avoid a [customs] border on the island of Ireland.

“And it is very difficult to turn around and argue against somebody who would say - ‘Hold on a minute, the threat of violence was used to prevent a land border why would the threat of violence not suffic to prevent a sea border?’ I don’t advocate that but it is a difficult viewpoint to argue against.”

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