Ferocious UUP–DUP clash on Brexit and Union with Empey calling for resignations

On the airwaves this morning, Sir Reg Empey (one of the UUP’s top grandees and a negotiator of the Good Friday Agreement) called for resignations from the DUP ranks over the Brexit deal which NI has ended up with.

It basically means that goods coming into NI from GB will be checked at NI ports, with infrastructure currently being constructed in Larne, Warrenpoint, Belfast and Foyle, Michael Gove indicated – adding that dozens of EU staff will be present in NI to help police the EU’s custom rules.

Reg Empey told Stephen Nolan: “The fact is on October 2, 2019, they [the DUP] agreed a border in the Irish Sea. Now how could any unionist do that?

“They pulled away from that two weeks later. But the damage was done, the floodgates were opened...

“I think some of them I believe need to consider their positions, because this – what we’re hearing with regard to this protocol and the statement today – is a direct result of their dereliction of their duty to ensure the union is protected.

“Let me spell it out very simply. When Boris Johnson became PM in summer 2019, having effectively seen off Theresa May, he came to power ion basis of his desire to leave the EU.

“He met Leo Varadkar, the Irish taoiseach, in Liverpool and they discussed a way forward.

“Subsequent to that he produced a document which was the UK proposal for an amendment to the Ireland/NI protocol [on October 2, 2019].”

This document, he said, spoke of border posts, and yet the DUP endorsed it.

Asked if the Union has been eroded, Lord Empey said: “Certainly it is eroded. Because the way Brexit has been negotiated and introduced... most people who voted for Brexit never imagined they’d be in this position. It wasn’t thought through properly.

“The UUP recommended against Brexit because we were concerned about exactly this sort of thing.

“There’s nothing wrong with Brexit – it’s a perfectly legitimate objective. We accept the outcome of the referendum.”

But, he added, what happened since then is the DUP acquiesced to the idea of the Irish Sea border.

“Can you imagine if,” said Lord Empey, “if David Trimble had agreed to such a thing?

“Can you imagine what Ian Paisley would be doing this morning? It’s just incredible.”

Asked who he thinks should resign, Lord Empey said: “Could be Arlene, could be any of them.”

Hitting back hard was newly-ennobled peer Nigel Dodds (Lord Dodds of Duncairn), who joined Lord Empey in the house just a few weeks ago.

Referring to the Good Friday Agreement he said: “It’s pathetic really for someone like Lord Empey who basically negotiated an agreement which released terrorist prisoners on to our streets, destroyed the RUC and put Sinn Fein in government without any decommissioning while they were still murdering people, the IRA were doing that, to lecture other people.

“The reality is that he’s wrong, and its a falsehood and a lie, to say the DUP agreed a regulatory border – we did no such thing.

“What we said is there could only be such a regulatory difference if the Assembly and the Executive agreed to it – and that’s entirely different.

“That’s a safeguard for Northern Ireland.

“So a mixture of whinging and pathetic falsehoods will not deter us in the DUP from doing what’s right for Northern Ireland, which is grappling with the issues to protect the economy of NI to protect the constitutional position of NI, and to work with the government and business.”