'No change in substance' from new DUP leader on Irish Sea border - Allister

Mr Robinson says that while the deal hasn’t achieved the removal of the border in the “internal market” as yet, it will – and has also made clear what he sees as the removal of the border will happen in autumn.

Speaking to BBC’s Sunday Politics programme, the TUV leader said: “There is certainly no change in substance because what Gavin said was that his first priority was maintaining the Stormont arrangements, which of course are the implementation arrangements. Instead of saying that he wanted to restore our place fully within the United Kingdom – that he wanted the Irish Sea border gone. No. Gavin’s priority is to maintain the very implementation structures which are Stormont.

“So I don’t see any change of substance. Yes, of course Sir Jeffrey grossly oversold it. He told us there was no Irish Sea border – zero checks, zero paperwork – that our place was wholly restored within the United Kingdom. All of which were patently false”.

Asked by the BBC’s Mark Carruthers about comments by DUP MP Ian Paisley in which he claimed Gavin Robinson has moved the party from “spin” on its deal with the government to “a solid basis of truth”, Mr Allister said that none of the key parts of the protocol had changed – such as Northern Ireland being subject to the EU’s customs code and EU law.

“The plan of the protocol clearly is the unification of Ireland. My plan is reunification of the United Kingdom”, he said.

The TUV leader said the “aspiration and intention” of his party and Reform UK is to run candidates in each of Northern Ireland’s 18 Westminster constituencies at the general election. “We haven’t named 18 candidates but yes, I said that it was our intention to seek to do that” he told the BBC.

Mr Allister said “those who are discomfited by the fact that we’re no longer a full part of the United Kingdom” are entitled to have their say at an election.

Responding to a question about losing the DUP seats, Mr Allister said: “Sorry. There are no DUP seats. Once the election is called, no party has any seats. They are the people’s seats. And it is for the people to decide”. He said the DUP didn’t have a “divine right” to any seats.

“If people reject this Donaldson deal, then it’s dead in the water. And that’s the opportunity they will be given. And why shouldn’t they be?”, he added.

The TUV leader said he was happy to talk to Gavin Robinson about “an agenda to reunite the United Kingdom, instead of his agenda of promoting the unification of Ireland through the protocol”.

In an email to DUP members at the weekend, the DUP leader said: “Northern Ireland is moving forward. Things are far from perfect, but the dark days of the 80s are a different world in the minds of the young people who will vote for the first time in the next General Election.

“I am in the business of building on these foundations because I believe a prosperous Northern Ireland is not only good for the people who live and work here but will ultimately sustain Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom”.

He said the party “must also provide for our greatest asset – our talented people”.

Mr Robinson is seeking to move the discussion on from years of internal wrangling on the Irish Sea border – and provide a united platform in the wake of the resignation of Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.

Last week the party’s North Antrim MP Ian Paisley – who previously said Stormont wouldn’t work with laws in place that “prevent our trade flows from working properly" – backed his leader and said he had brought back a “solid basis of truth” on the deal.