Unionist leaders unite to tell Boris Johnson: Irish Sea Border is irreformable and our opposition to it is ‘unified and unalterable’

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the leaders of the DUP, UUP, TUV and others demanded that the government take “immediate action” to remove the internal trade frontier, even though there is no sign of Boris Johnson doing anything of the sort.

The letter to Boris Johnson is aligned to the looming judicial review of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which establishes the new trade border for British goods crossing the Irish Sea into Northern Ireland.

That court action is being taken by TUV leader Jim Allister, former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib and former Labour MP Baroness Hoey, and is supported by all the unionist parties in Northern Ireland.

The letter to the Prime Minister said: “As pro-unionists and leaders in the community in Northern Ireland we wish you to be in no doubt that our unified and unalterable position is that the protocol is incapable of being reformed and must be repudiated and superseded by arrangements which fully respect Northern Ireland’s position as a constituent and integral part of the United Kingdom.

“Unless you take immediate action to settle a new arrangement for Northern lreland, one which is consistent with the Act of Union 1800, the Northern lreland Act of 1998 and the Belfast Agreement, we shall be issuing proceedings for a judicial review in accordance with the letter before action sent to the Secretary of State for Northern lreland, Brandon Lewis, on 19 February.”

The strength of that commitment makes it harder for the DUP and UUP to soften their opposition to the protocol. Last year DUP leader Arlene Foster made clear that although she did not like the protocol, she had accepted it and was not in the camp which would continue to fight it.

A DUP minister, Edwin Poots, then oversaw the erection of the border infrastructure and a DUP minister, Gordon Lyons, continues to oversee the manning of those border checkpoints.

Although the UUP did not adopt such a pragmatic approach, and criticised the DUP for its stance, the party voted in favour of some EU legislation which came before the Assembly and which has implemented aspects of the protocol.

The letter is signed by Mr Habib, Mr Allister, Baroness Hoey, Mrs Foster, Lord Dodds, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, UUP leader Steve Aiken, UUP chairman Danny Kennedy, and DUP MP Sammy Wilson.

It sets out the basis of their legal challenge, which is founded in an argument that the protocol breaches Article 6 of the Act of Union 1800 – which they describe as being “emphatic in its guarantee of unfettered trade between the constituent parts of the Union”.

The letter explicitly rejects the government’s current strategy of keeping the protocol but attempting to take the rougher edges off it through negotiations with the EU – although there is little evidence of that producing rapid changes.

The signatories to the letter said: “Whereas the protocol is doing immense damage to commerce and thus our economy, it is its pernicious constitutional damage which concerns us above all. Extended ‘grace periods’, derogations and easements will do nothing to ameliorate the Protocol’s fundamental assault on our constitutional position.”

The legal case also argues that secondary legislation stemming from the protocol breaches the 1998 Belfast Agreement by removing the ability for the Assembly’s belated democratic say on the protocol – in almost four year’s time – to be under standard Assembly rules which require a majority of unionists and a majority of nationalists.

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