Loyalist pastor Clifford Peeples launches legal action against Boris Johnson over NI Protocol

Loyalist pastor Clifford Peeples has issued proceedings against the Prime Minister, claiming that the post-Brexit trading arrangement breaches the Good Friday Agreement.

The Belfast man’s lawyers contend that such a constitutional change cannot take place without a referendum.

Unionist parties in Northern Ireland have already announced their intention to take legal action amid disruption to business at Irish Sea ports.

They argue that the protocol undermines both the Act of Union and the Belfast Agreement.

The arrangement formed part of the Brexit deal between the EU and UK.

It was aimed at preventing a hardening of the land border on the island of Ireland.

Under the terms of the protocol Northern Ireland remains in the EU single market for goods.

That has created a new trade border in the Irish Sea, with checks carried out on goods coming into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

Mr Peeples has now commenced judicial review proceedings in a bid to have the protocol declared unlawful without the consent of those living in the region.

The challenge lodged at the High Court in Belfast is also directed against the British Government, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Cabinet Minister Michael Gove.

Mr Peeples claimed he instructed his solicitor to initiate legal action last month, before it emerged that the DUP, UUP and TUV were planning litigation.

He said: I am taking this case on behalf of wider unionism because I believe that our politicians are responsible for creating this divide between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

“The DUP campaigned for Brexit and have, in my opinion, repeatedly undermined and weakened the Union.

“Ultimately, they are responsible for instituting this border in the Irish Sea, which has led to the constitutional crisis that we are in.”