Northern Ireland Protocol rally: Hoey tells packed Orange Hall that unionists must practise ‘maximum unity and vote transfers’ in election

There was standing room only tonight in Saintfield’s Orange Hall for the latest of a series of anti-NI Protocol rallies - this one addressed by a UUP councillor.
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Philip Smith was briefly an MLA for about 10 months from 2016 to 2017, and currently represents Comber on Ards and North Down Borough Council.

His appearance at the event puts him at apparent odds with the views of his party leader Doug Beattie, who backed out of addressing a recent rally in Lurgan, saying he was concerned the rallies were raising tensions too high and could lead to young people suffering criminal convictions.

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Councillor Smith last week told the News Letter: “The bottom line here is that this meeting gives me an opportunity to engage with constituents. What I will be telling them is that the UUP have been against the protocol from day one.”He addressed the crowd of 200 people in the village Orange Hall, alongside arch-Brexiteers Baroness Kate Hoey (ex-Labour MP) and Ben Habib (property tycoon and ex-Brexit Party MEP). Also speaking were the DUP’s Peter Weir, and the TUV’s Stephen Cooper.

Speakers at the anti-Northern Ireland Protocol rally in Saintfield Orange Hall. From left, ex-MEP Ben Habib, the DUP's Peter Weir, Baroness Kate Hoey, the TUV's Stephen Cooper and the UUP's Philip Smith. Date: Friday 20 April 2022.Speakers at the anti-Northern Ireland Protocol rally in Saintfield Orange Hall. From left, ex-MEP Ben Habib, the DUP's Peter Weir, Baroness Kate Hoey, the TUV's Stephen Cooper and the UUP's Philip Smith. Date: Friday 20 April 2022.
Speakers at the anti-Northern Ireland Protocol rally in Saintfield Orange Hall. From left, ex-MEP Ben Habib, the DUP's Peter Weir, Baroness Kate Hoey, the TUV's Stephen Cooper and the UUP's Philip Smith. Date: Friday 20 April 2022.

Speaking to the News Letter just before she was due to address the crowd, Baroness Hoey said she would be calling for “maximum unionist unity and for maximum transfer of votes among unionist candidates” in the pending assembly election.

“I am also calling for a recognition that whatever the outcome next week it is really important that the unity that has been built up on this issue of the Protocol is positively used to forge a really good vision of where the pro-union community wants to be,” she said.

The former cabinet minister said: “We want the complete scrapping of the [Northern Ireland] Protocol - you can’t reform it - no tinkering will work.”

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The former MP added that she would not be satisfied by any promises on the matter included in the next Queen’s Speech, which she said “isn’t good enough”.

”It has to be actually enacted and then the government has to have the will to make it happen, because we have been marched up to the top of the hill too many times and marched back down again.”Strangford assembly candidate Councillor Stephen Cooper told the crowd that the Belfast Agreement formalised the “appeasement process we endure presently, rewarding terrorists and snubbing victims”. 

He added: “The republican movement viewed [the Belfast Agreement] as not a settlement, but purely the means to achieve an all Ireland, through uniting the island of Ireland ,(with north south bodies and all Ireland government structures) all whilst keeping up the pretence that any constitutional change would be subject to the consent of the people of Northern Ireland.“The Northern Ireland Protocol has provided the evidence that constitutional change has happened, without anyone’s consent, or support and as we await the Supreme court battle, we must continue to play our part in opposing this unprecedented and unacceptable intrusion on our position within the UK and continue to use every legal and political means we have at our disposal to remove the protocol in all its forms; no tinkering, no amendments, and no rigorous implementation.

“Let me make it crystal clear for the avoidance of doubt; it has to go in all its forms. “As the Protocol unites the island economically, in tandem with the structures mentioned above from the Belfast Agreement, the all Ireland dynamic is being pursued incessantly by our enemies.”

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The meeting will be followed by more demonstrations on Saturday. One will be a band parade at 12.30pm beginning at Henry Street, Ballymena, and heading to the town bandstand.

There are expected to be 10 bands, and it is being run under the banner of Mid Antrim Combined Orange Districts.

And on Saturday night Bangor will host a parade involving five bands, starting at 6.30pm at Abbey Street, ending at Hamilton Road.

The speakers on the flyer are Jamie Bryson, Kate Hoey, Ben Habib, Jim Allister, and Jeffrey Donaldson.