Unionist student 'optimistic' message about EU involvement in Northern Ireland is getting through to the government after House of Lords debate on 'democratic deficit' caused by the Protocol

Jack Steele, secretary of Queen’s University Belfast’s DUP society, made the comments following a debate in the House of Lords about the issue.

The story stems from the Labour government’s move to axe the last remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords.

In a video promoting the move, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations, said: “I want young people growing up in my constituency, and every part of the country, to feel that they have the same chance as anyone else of making the laws of the land.”

Unionists took umbrage at this on the basis that a raft of EU laws continue to apply in Northern Ireland following Brexit.

No-one in Northern Ireland is able to enact, repeal, or otherwise influence those laws, they argue – and the Labour government is doing nothing about that.

Nine young unionists, including Mr Steele, then penned a letter published in the Daily Telegraph saying: “To us – all residents of Northern Ireland in our 20s and 30s – it is quite extraordinary that the minister should have uttered these words, when at the same time the Irish Sea Border was affecting the most dramatic reversal of UK citizenship in our history, removing from us all means of making the laws to which we are subject, not just in relation to one law or 300, but 300 areas of law.”

Whilst the existence of hereditary peers does not “affect our right to stand for election to the House of Commons or Northern Ireland Assembly”, they said, “the Irish Sea Border, by contrast, denies us rights enjoyed by our peers everywhere else in the country”.

Then on Tuesday night independent unionist peer Baroness Hoey raised the issue in the House of Lords.

She said: “It feels as if we in Northern Ireland are subject to a classic conjuror’s illusion, where our eyes are being led away from confronting the greatest ever assault on the integrity of UK citizenship and towards a comparatively minor adjustment in the opposite direction that it hopes will capture our attention.”

The baroness added that the young signatories to the letter “have not been taken in by that illusion… what we have done in Northern Ireland is a disgrace to the citizenship of our citizens”.

Also speaking on a similar theme were DUP Lords McCrea, Weir, and Morrow, among others.

As the debate wound up, Labour’s Baroness Anderson said she would “welcome a conversation” about engaging with some of the young letter signatories.

Mr Steele, 20 and from Bangor, was asked by the News Letter: does he feel the message got through to the government?

"I think it did,” he said, adding that “I think there is reason to be optimistic” after the debate.

He told the News Letter: “It’s [about] creating the noise and drawing attention of the fact that what’s happening in Northern Ireland is quite a contrast to what’s been the norm in England, Scotland, and Wales, which is one man, one vote.

"That is the essence of what we’re asking in our letter: how could the government orientate themselves around requests to remove heriditary peers on the basis of what Nick Thomas-Symonds said – ensuring that all young people have the right to vote for someone to make laws on their behalf – while simultaneously knowing that the very thing they’re wanting to achieve with their bill is ongoing in Northern Ireland, and has been since the inception of the Protocol?”