Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“I very much welcome the planned Judicial Review challenge to the iniquitous Protocol and count it a privilege to have helped get this to the starting blocks. Without Ben Habib and Baroness Hoey we would not be at this point.
“I sincerely hope that all strands of Unionism will join in this necessary effort and I’m encouraged by initial discussions in that regard. Anyone who cares about the integrity of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland’s place therein will support this endeavour.
“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.
“At the heart of this challenge will be the irreconcilable conflict of the sovereignty-busting Protocol with the foundational constitutional statute which bound us into the U.K., the Act of Union 1800 and particularly Article 6 thereof. The superseding of the cross-community mechanism, as the means of measuring consent for key decisions in the Assembly – through the Statutory Instrument introduced by the Secretary of State, which purports to set aside this protection in the scheduled 2024 vote in the Assembly – will also play a central role in this challenge.
“In joining in this Judicial Review challenge I make it very clear that it is not a substitute or alternative to sustained and effective political action against the Protocol. The imperative is for both, not least because the judicial review route will be protracted. Indeed, the more the implementation of the Protocol is disrupted the less sustainable it becomes.”