TUV: We led on Northern Ireland Protocol and the DUP followed after us

Mr Allister was setting out his party’s core message for the forthcoming assembly elections. His message came after the DUP First Minister Paul Givan resigned on Thursday, thereby triggering the effective suspension of Stormont, and after DUP Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots ordered his civil servants to suspend their ports checks on behalf of the EU.

Speaking in Lisburn on Friday night at a Lagan Valley TUV fund-raising dinner, party leader Jim Allister will say: “The TUV’s stance on the Protocol is not election-led. Principle, not expediency is our guide. TUV has led the way in legal and political challenge. Action, not dither has been our approach.”

He added: “From the start we saw the Protocol for what it is: an instrument to break up the United Kingdom; a device to leave NI, allied with the Republic, under the foreign sovereignty of the EU; and designed to force an economic all-Ireland as a stepping stone to Irish unity.

“Though, the DUP has now been brought to its present position - and grassroots pressure and the polls performance of TUV have played key roles in spurring election timed action - voters are not stupid and know who initially talked foolishly about ‘opportunities’ in the Protocol and who called it out as the betrayal it is.”

Mr Allister said he was glad Sir Jeffrey has “retreated from his foolhardy claim” on BBC Spotlight that ‘Customs checks doesn’t mean that you change the constitution status of a part of the UK’.

The TUV leader added: “Customs checks mean precisely that because they signify moving from one jurisdiction to another, in this case moving from UK control to EU control when goods pass from GB to NI. That is the core constitutional iniquity of the Protocol.

“Complicity in implementing this Union-dismantling Protocol was total folly. Hence our opposition to the Poots Posts and the checks that bedded in the Irish Sea border.

But the TUV leader said the issues were far from settled.

“This battle is not yet over and will not be until the EU gives up its ill-gotten sovereignty over us. We must cease to be part of a foreign single market, under a foreign customs code and VAT regime, all governed by foreign laws we don’t make and can’t change and overseen by a foreign court.”

He added: “Going forward, voters should rely on those who called it right from the beginning and who will keep others to their pledges. TUV is the real deal.”

However the DUP responded by calling for a united front.

North Down DUP MLA Peter Weir said: “Unionism stands united in opposing the Irish Sea border. It must be removed.  But unionism must focus its wrath on the pro-protocol parties rather than turning on each other.  It has been the DUP’s action which has brought the EU back to the negotiating table and now the UK government must ensure that the Irish Sea border is scrapped.

“We have been patient but it is now time for a reset. Progress can only be made in NI when it has buy-in from both communities. Unionism can argue all day with each other but this is a time to stand together and say enough is enough. Time people had a say in a democracy.”

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