‘The DUP leading us out of the Protocol? They led us into it in the first place!’: Reg Empey

Lord Empey was speaking as the DUP gets ready at some point this week to make an announcement about the next steps in fighting the Protocol.

Yesterday the News Letter quoted Sir Jeffrey Donaldson as saying: “I’ll be outlining very clearly my position on the Protocol later this week, and setting out the way forward in terms of what I believe the government needs to do – and what unionism needs to do, if the government fails to honour the commitments they have given...

“We are very clear that the Irish Sea border needs to be removed, and that remains our position.”

It is not the Tory government’s position, however.

At the weekend top UK Brexit negotiator Lord Frost said whilst there should be changes to the Protocol, he is not aiming to “sweep all the existing arrangements away”.

Sir Reg, one of the most prominent critics of the Brexit arrangements imposed on the Province, told the News Letter what he really wants to hear is why the DUP “endorsed” proposals for the Protocol back in 2019, adding: “Is he best placed to get Northern Ireland out of this mess, when – in my opinion – the Protocol couldn’t have happened without their acquiescence.

“They had the balance of power at Westminster when this happened.”

Specifically, Sir Reg was referring to Arlene Foster’s comments on October 2, 2019.

On that day, a document was published by the Westminster government called: “UK proposals for an amended protocol on Ireland / Northern Ireland”.

Among other things, it called for “the creation of an all-island regulatory zone on the island of Ireland”.

And whilst it contained four strongly-worded commitments to avoiding any infrastructure/checks on the land border, it contained zero commitments to avoiding them between GB and NI.

Whilst the DUP went on to publicly reject the Protocol proposals, on October 2 itself Arlene Foster had responded to them by saying “I think this is a sensible way forward, and it is a serious way forward”.

Sir Reg described the protocol as a “constitutional carbuncle” adding: “Does he [Sir Jeffrey] really think he’s going to be taken seriously as an advocate of an alternative to the very proposals that they endorsed?”

South Belfast MLA Christopher Stalford said: “Unionists want to see greater cooperation across unionism and to see their leaders working together in opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

“Our aim remains firmly on the need to remove the Irish Sea border rather than petty and inaccurate jibes from Reg Empey.”