Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“The orchestrated bully boy tactics by Dublin politicians over Brexit must be faced down with vigour.
“The essence of the Republic’s demand that the UK, or at least this part of it, must stay in the EU Single Market and/or Customs Union, amounts to a demand that the democratic decision of the people of the UK should be ignored. To stay in the single market and/or the customs union is to stay in the EU.
“Of course, the reason for the Republic’s rising hysteria is the realisation that they, not we, will be the real losers in Brexit. With their trade and economy being so UK-dependant Dublin is desperate to avoid the consequences of the EU insisting on the sanctity of its custom borders. Such will largely devastate the Republic’s agri-food exports to its biggest market, the UK.
“But, instead of pitching their anger towards Brussels, because it is the EU’s ideological and unyielding attitude to maintaining its tariffs that creates the problem, Dublin foolishly tries to bully us out of Brexit. It is not going to happen, so, if Dublin wants to protect itself then it should be expending its energy on getting a ‘special status’ for itself so that it can continue to trade tariff-free with its biggest market.
“Throwing tantrums over our democratic decision to leave will do nothing to solve its looming problems.
“There can be no question of a customs border down the Irish Sea. The single market which matters to us is the UK Single Market and to that there must be no impediment. If the Republic too wants to enjoy that access then maybe it should consider its own position in the EU and recognise that a British Isles single market would have far more to offer it – but that is a matter for them, just as our decision to leave is a matter for us.”