‘TUV pressure on DUP paying off’ says Jim Allister

The TUV leader his party’s plan involved “unionists taking serious and sustained political action on three fronts.”

He said: “They needed to freeze their involvement in the Belfast Agreement’s north/south institutions until the east/west equilibrium was restored, there could be no repeat of EU laws being adopted by the Assembly as happened on December 8, 2020 when 45 such laws were meekly voted through with only Jim Wells and I in opposition and, the DAERA Minister, Mr Poots, should have directed discontinuance of cooperation of his officials in operating the Irish Sea border checks.”

Mr Allister said the protocol has been permitted to “bed in” for 12 months with unionist opposition “at best sporadic and lacking conviction”.

He added: “One north/south meeting was boycotted only for the next to be attended. Other meetings approved appointments to north/south bodies which went well beyond the remit of the supposed reason for the meeting.

“Just this week I had confirmation by way of a written answer that DUP Economy Minister Gordon Lyons had asked for appointments to the north/south tourism body at a Health meeting. Such meaningless posturing sent a message of weakness to Dublin, London and the EU.

“Now there is speculation that Minister Poots, after operating the Sea Border for a year, may finally withdraw staff.

“The obvious question for the DUP is why did their Minister ever build the border which partitions the UK in the first place?

“Why did it take opinion polls showing sustained high levels of support for TUV for the DUP to act?”

Mr Allister went on to say: “Time will tell if the latest DUP threats are more serious than those which went before but the electorate are entitled to be sceptical.

“Any action over the next few months which isn’t consistent with their action over the past year will, I suspect, be met with cynicism by an electorate which the DUP have taken for granted for far too long.”

East Antrim MLA Gordon Lyons responded, saying: “There is no support within unionism for the Northern Ireland Protocol and people want to see a united stance against trade barriers within our country.

“We remain committed to the principles outlined in the Unionist Declaration of which Jim was also part. The greatest progress has been made through a united and cohesive unionism.”

Mr Lyons added: “DUP action forced the European Union back to the negotiating table. Having secured that we were prepared to be reasonable and allow space for progress to be made. However having taken action before we are equally prepared to take action again. Our decisions will be made on the basis of what is good for Northern Ireland.

“Internal squabbles amongst those of us who oppose the undemocratic and costly Protocol only serves to take the focus away from where it needs to be – on the UK Government delivering on its pledge to restore Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market.”