Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“I am dismayed that, apart from some temporary delay in aspects, the Irish Sea Border is coming in all its destructive aspects. Make no mistake. Destructive it will be – both economically and constitutionally.
“The sad reality of course is that because of the roll over attitude of many in Unionism, as demonstrated yesterday in the Assembly when without a whimper they voted for enslavement under the protocol, both the EU and the UK Government have calculated that they can put what they want upon Northern Ireland sure in the knowledge that huffing and puffing aside there will be no upending to their machinations to annex Northern Ireland into the EU orbit.
“This is a sad day because in truth Northern Ireland is being left behind within much of the EU while Great Britain makes its full exit with partition now down the Irish Sea.
“I continue to suspect that the EU’s game plan of leaving Northern Ireland in a waiting room for Irish unity has been facilitated by Boris Johnston’s government and those Unionists who were foolish enough to ever open the door to our estrangement by endorsing the concept of a regulatory border in the Irish Sea.”