Jim Allister slams those who ‘denigrate’ protests against the Northern Ireland Protocol

Mr Allister also hit out at those he claimed that “denigrate protests and protestors.”

At the anti-Protocol rally in Lurgan on Friday night, the TUV leader said: “Unionist voters who are dismayed by such complacency can, and should express that disappointment by how they deploy their preferences in the election. Now is a time for strength, not weakness.”

While DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson appealed from the platform for Unionist unity, Mr Allister said that as a result of the Protocol “we have the folly of the Poots Posts imposing checks on goods from the rest of the Uk.”

He continued: “Such customs checks - shamefully overseen by a DUP minister - are the physical manifestation that now when moving goods from GB to NI they are moving from the sovereignty of the UK to the sovereignty of the EU. What a shocking and unbearable assault on our proclaimed position as part of the United Kingdom!”

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson also criticised Doug Beattie over the UUP leader’s claim that protest rallies against the Protocol were raising the political temperature to a potentially dangerous level.

Mr Bryson told the Lurgan demonstration: ““Let me say this very clearly. I stand over every single word I have said from any of the platforms during this protest campaign. If some hope — and some have suggested — that I should moderate or tone down my contributions, then they are going to be sadly disappointed. I will not be party to misleading or deceiving the unionist and loyalist community. And nor will I be part of the nonsensical proposition that we should continue to operate or support the Belfast Agreement, nor the process or Protocol it spawned. And if that’s raising the political temperature then so be it!”

He claimed that the campaign to silence opposition to the Protocol was being “aided and abetted by some who call themselves unionists.”

United stance against protocol has ‘unwavering support’ from voters, DUP leader tells Lurgan rally

Rumours of Article 16 move to suspend Northern Ireland Protocol are credible says Lord Empey

Ben Lowry: Even if Art 16 isn’t triggered UK knows protocol is a huge problem