Union undermined ‘by Sinn Fein at Stormont’s wheel’ Jim Allister has said

​The TUV leader made his comments as a warning to the DUP, after DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the assembly’s power-sharing institutions were “essential” for building the case for Northern Ireland's place within the Union.

Following the DUP conference at the weekend, Sir Jeffrey said a time is coming when his party must decide if ongoing negotiations with the government are a basis for ending the impasse caused by the post-Brexit trading arrangements and the resultant trade border in the Irish Sea.

However, he said a Stormont return depends on whether the DUP “can get the agreement that we need with the government”.

Sir Jeffrey added: “I also spelt out very clearly and at length in my speech what is required and that is to restore Northern Ireland's place within the United Kingdom and our ability to trade within the internal market of the UK”.

In a video message posted on social media on Monday, Jim Allister said: "Anyone who thinks that restarting the engine of Stormont with Sinn Fein at the wheel is the way to strengthen and maintain the Union is, I suggest, very wrong.

"Sinn Fein has never been in the business of making Northern Ireland work. Its sole goal is the destruction of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, and it would, and has, used its position in government to weaken our position.

"And of course, with the [NI] protocol in place, they have the tools to do the job, because the protocol is about creating an all-Ireland economically, and if for example Sinn Fein was the economy minister, it would be their dream come true."

Mr Allister said unionism “needs to stand its ground… because the protocol is designed to dismantle the Union, and any going back to Stormont while the protocol prevails, and its Irish Sea border, with Northern Ireland under EU law, with us subject to a foreign customs code, will inevitably weaken and dismantle the Union”.

Also speaking on Monday, Sinn Fein MP John Finucane said there is “no justification” for the DUP’s delay in returning to Stormont, and said every day is vital for people who are on hospital waiting lists, workers and families facing a brutal cost-of-living crisis and those who look to their political representatives to “honour the result of last year’s election to form an assembly and an executive”.

He said: “That’s what we are ready to do. We’ve been ready to do that since last May.

“There shouldn’t be any further delay for the assembly and the executive to be restored.

“We need that collective voice to ask for the resources to begin to tackle the problems that we have, and we also have huge opportunities in the next couple of weeks.”

Mr Finucane added: “We have a delegation of over 40 businesses under the leadership of Joe Kennedy III. That presents a huge opportunity to create jobs, for businesses to add to the investment they have already made here.

“We should be grabbing that with both hands. To miss or not to maximise that potential is unforgivable”.