TUV says NI now a magnet for illegal migrants after Rwanda ruling amid 'alarm' in deprived communities

Speaking in Stormont after securing a matter of the day debate on the issue, Mr Allister said ​Monday’s High Court ruling on the Rwanda scheme was “of immense constitutional significance”.

The TUV leader said “It was constitutionally significant in that an Act of the sovereign Parliament of the United Kingdom was overruled and set aside because of the supremacy of EU law, which is bestowed by article 2 of the sovereignty-grabbing protocol, subjecting Northern Ireland alone in the United Kingdom to its supremacy, its laws and its rights.

“The consequence, of course, given the subject, is that Northern Ireland will now become a magnet for illegal migrants, flooding into Northern Ireland to escape the potential consequences that lie within the Rwanda scheme.“The political consequences also extend to the fact that yesterday's judgement saw the wheels come off the DUP's 'Safeguarding the Union' document that brought it back to the House. In that document, which the DUP bought and sold to the people of Northern Ireland, there is a blatant lie in paragraph 46, where it states: ‘the Windsor Framework applies only in respect of the trade in goods’.

“I and others told the DUP that that was not so, and now the High Court equally says that it is not so”.

The TUV deputy leader Ron McDowell says the judgement has caused “alarm” in more deprived parts of Northern Ireland.

The Belfast councillor said: “Public services are already beyond breaking point with folk unable to get timely access to their GP and here we face the very real prospect of an influx of migrants who will see NI as a soft touch and somewhere they can escape the prospect of more robust measures in Great Britain.

“A common immigration policy is something which is fundamental to defining a nation. However, in this part of the UK it is EU laws which apply, not those of Westminster.

He said people are entitled to ask why we got to this point and that the DUP “accepted a duff deal”.