Jim Allister says Northern Ireland 'can't serve two masters' as unionists debate UK-EU market access

Mr Allister’s comments come as unionists debate which market NI should primarily be part of – although there is no indication any fundamental changes to post-Brexit trade arrangements are on the horizon.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said that the DUP wants to retain access to the EU single market – alongside fully restoring NI’s place in the UK internal market – and that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. However, DUP MP Sammy Wilson has said that full access to both markets is not possible – it is a choice.

The UUP also back access to both markets and have proposed a new body to promote trade within the UK.

However, the TUV leader says: “NI’s place in the U.K. internal market cannot be restored while simultaneously having one foot in the EU single market, because the price is subjection to EU law and that subjugates Article Six of the Acts of Union.

“Before EU membership NI was exclusively in the UK internal market; during EU membership the whole UK was in the EU’s single market; post Brexit GB is again exclusively in the UK internal market but NI has been left behind, still in the EU single market and subject to all its foreign laws. As Sammy Wilson MP rightly pointed out this week, full restoration to the UK internal market necessitates escape from the EU single market and its foreign laws and court.

“NI cannot serve two masters. This is not a matter of constitutional purity, but of constitutional reality.

“Restoration to the UK internal market of necessity requires our extraction from the EU single market on the same terms as GB. That is the only way to reverse the suspension of Article Six. Then, we could continue to trade with the EU but on the same terms as the rest of the nation - which is the proper constitutional order.”