DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson hits back at 'unelected detractors' after Jamie Bryson criticises Assembly vote against new EU law on Geographical Indications (GI)

The rule protects the branding of certain products which are linked to a geographical area. For example, applied to food, it means that only sparkling wines from the relevant region of France can be marketed as Champagne.

All unionist parties voted against the move, while Sinn Féin, Alliance and the SDLP backed it.

It now falls on the UK Government to decide whether the new law should be introduced in Northern Ireland.

DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said the debate was a "significant moment" by enabling the Assembly to have it say.

Speaking in the assembly debate, he said the new EU law "would create a new regulatory border within the United Kingdom".

But UUP leader Doug Beattie said his party would be voting against the motion because the new EU law had not been given proper scrutiny.

He added: “What are the long-term implications of this EU regulation? We don’t know because there’s been no scrutiny.”

The SDLP’s Matthew O’Toole said his party would urge the UK-EU joint committee, the body that oversees the working of the Windsor Framework, to allow the law to apply to Northern Ireland.

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson responded to the outcome by highlighting what he believed were DUP double standards in relation to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The DUP returned to Stormont in January after accepting a deal with the UK government which they argue strongly mitigated the constitutional and commercial impact of the NI Protocol on the union.

However Mr Bryson, some senior DUP figures and the TUV insisted that the deal did not go far enough.

"The DUP now champion the core of the Protocol, namely NI being EU territory & part of the EU market," Mr Bryson said in a tweet after yesterday’s vote.

"The price of that ‘arrangement’ is EU law. Now they are voting against EU law. Can’t be both an arsonist & a fireman!"

But DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson hit back, also on X (formerly Twitter), pointing out that the Assembly now has a veto over new EU rules in NI.

"Some of our unelected detractors in unionism are getting increasingly desperate," he said.

"Despite the fact all unionist MLAs voted with us today, bizarrely these unelected detractors criticise the right of Stormont to vote against the application of EU law.

"Yet without Stormont these EU regulations would automatically become law!

"Of course the real reason they are peeved is because today destroys the myth they have propagated that nothing has changed.

"If we followed their failed strategy we couldn’t do anything about EU law. They have delivered no change and offer no hope. Their new strategy is simply to mock and attack their fellow unionists and divide unionism to the benefit of others."