Protocol rallies: Friday will see event at heart of UUP bad blood controversy – with more gatherings on Saturday

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.

He is slated to address the crowd alongside arch-Brexiteers baroness Kate Hoey (ex-Labour MP) and Ben Habib (property tycoon and ex-Brexit Party MEP).

Also on the bill are the DUP’s Peter Weir, and the TUV’s Stephen Cooper.

The reason his appearance has stirred controversy is because of the ongoing bad blood between harder-line loyalists in the anti-Protocol movement and the UUP.

Activist Jamie Bryson, one of the key organisers of the rallies, has been engaged in damning attacks on the party.

In recent days he has said “the UUP have lost all grip on reality [and] will literally say or do anything to try and appease nationalists”, and that the party has displayed a “complete lack of understanding” about the Protocol.

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.”

A flyer for the event says it begins at 7.30pm at Saintfield Orange Hall.

There is no 11/1 parade notification lodged with the Parades Commission.

It 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 tomorrow 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.

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