Doug Beattie: I’ll take UUP into Executive even if NI Protocol is still in place

Launching his party’s manifesto beside the battleship HMS Caroline on Belfast Lough, the UUP leader said the protocol “is not the thing that will stop us going into government”.

In front of all the UUP Assembly candidates underneath the shadow of the World War One battle cruiser, Mr Beattie was asked if in principle he had any objection to a nationalist first minister if the electoral numbers stacked up that way.

He said the UUP would wait until post-election negotiations but added “whoever wins is the winner, you just can’t say because you’ve won that you can’t win”.

But Mr Beattie stressed that “it could end up that we might decide that the best place to be is in opposition”.

He said there will be no united Ireland in his or his children’s lifetime and that he believed that the protocol would not lead to fundamental constitutional change “regardless of what others are saying”.

On the protocol Mr Beattie said: “We have always been opposed to the protocol and we have been working to deal with the issues surrounding it, which we will continue to do.

“The whole argument about first minister/deputy first minister is a false one because the bottom line is we will go into this election to win and at the end of that election whether we win or don’t there will be negotiations. In those negotiations we will put our stance forward for a better Northern Ireland because that is what will improve society here.”

Pressed on how there can be a solution to the protocol and the disruption to trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain it has caused, Mr Beattie said: “We are already moving to political solutions and the conversation has changed. That conversation is about a ‘Red Lane/Green Lane’ solution with goods coming from Great Britain into Northern Ireland which are staying in Northern Ireland that do not need to be checked.

“That has been our line since 2019 and that is the line which is coming from businesses here. It is now the line coming from the UK government as part of its Command Paper from July of 2021, which has Ulster Unionist Party proposals contained within it.

“So, that’s one of the changes but of course we have the issue of medicines which has been changed but not fixed yet but we are getting there. That has been created by dialogue and engagement.

“Of course we have to look at EU rules over state aid and the European Court of Justice. All these things can be done with engagement but they will not be done by putting our fingers in our ears and ignoring the problem.”

Addressing the cost-of-living crisis, he called on the government to override the protocol and give Northern Ireland the same zero VAT cut to home heating the rest of the UK was granted in the chancellor’s spring statement.

Asked if it was realistic for government to ignore the EU rule via the protocol that imposes a minimum 5% VAT rate across countries in the single market, Mr Beattie said: “Yes, it is realistic because the energy crisis is a global crisis and we already have countries within the European Union who are disregarding European Union rules in relation to their own VAT rates.

“If they are doing that within the European Union and we are outside the EU in the United Kingdom then we can do that if it’s for the benefit of our people. I have written to the foreign secretary on three occasions to look at these issues and if she has to take unilateral action then she needs to do so in getting rid of VAT on home heating oil so the people here in Northern Ireland don’t suffer.”

In his 40-page manifesto the UUP leader called for all of Northern Ireland’s ports – the frontlines of the protocol sea border checks – to be designated along with the Province’s airports as freeports.

The UUP would bring plans to any multi-party discussions after the election on a Programme for Government for the construction of up to thousands of new homes in the public sector to deal with the 40,000 housing waiting list.

Many of the party’s 26 candidates sat shivering in freezing cold biting winds whipping off Belfast Lough as Mr Beattie delivered his speech. Among those standing for the first time was East Belfast candidate Lauren Kerr who told the gathering earlier that no matter what Sinn Fein and the DUP say “the border is not on the ballot paper”.

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