Refusal to 'enthrone Sinn Fein First Minister' will differentiate TUV from other unionists in an election, says Jim Allister

Party leader Jim Allister criticised both the DUP and UUP for their apparent willingness to become what he described as "Sinn Fein's bridesmaids".

In an interview with the News Letter amid expectations of a fresh Assembly election, Mr Allister also insisted that Northern Ireland should return to Direct Rule if issues around post-Brexit trading rules aren't resolved.

Northern Ireland has been without fully-functioning devolved government since February, when the DUP withdrew ministers from the Stormont Executive in protest at the trade border in the Irish Sea resulting from the Northern Ireland Protocol.

A six-month deadline for a new government to be formed following elections to the Assembly passed on Friday, meaning the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris now has a statutory duty to order a fresh poll in the next 12 weeks.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he wants to see the Stormont Assembly restored as soon as possible, but he does not see a fresh election bringing a solution closer with protocol woes remaining.

Mr Allister, on the prospect of an election, said: "What would be different about this election? From a unionist perspective, in the last election, neither the Ulster Unionists nor the DUP would answer the fundamental question 'would they be Sinn Fein's bridesmaids, would they enthrone a Sinn Fein First Minister?'.

"They now have since answered that question. There's two unionist parties who say they are ready to enthrone a Sinn Fein First Minister, and there's one unionist party that says that should not be done.”

He added: “That certainly will become an issue in the election, and a distinguishing issue between all the unionist parties."

Asked what will come next if, as expected following an election the impasse over the protocol continues, Mr Allister said: “Joint authority is a constitutional impossibility. Joint authority requires joint sovereignty, and that is something wholly incompatible with our position – and indeed wholly incompatible with the Belfast Agreement as well.

“As I see it, people in Northern Ireland get government from one of two places – they either get it from Stormont, or they get it from Westminster.”

He continued: “If we're not getting it from Stormont then the obligation is to give us government from Westminster. There is no middle road, as far as I'm concerned.

“There is certainly no foreign road whereby a foreign government would be involved in that."

Pressed on the possible time-frame for the introduction of Direct Rule from Westminster, the TUV leader said: “I think the people of Northern Ireland are entitled to government as soon as.

”I don't think they should be waiting.

”But it's quite clear they will never get government from Stormont so long as there's a protocol that operates on the basis that GB is a foreign country. If the government's not prepared to face up to the protocol issues, the next alternative for them is Direct Rule.”

On the protocol, he added: “The government had legislation that it has now turned shy on, and is now pretending they can make negotiations which can give the same solution when those negotiations cannot address the sovereignty issues.”