Statement by TUV East Londonderry representative Jordan Armstrong:
“The comments of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will only serve to cement the opposition of Unionists to the iniquitous Protocol. She is someone no one in Northern Ireland ever voted for. She is not accountable to no one elected by people in Northern Ireland. Yet she is pontificating about the partitioning our country. I dare say few people even know who she is yet Mrs Von der Leyen is making pronouncements about the Protocol which is harming businesses and livelihoods across Northern Ireland to say nothing of the constitutional damage.
“What is the rational for Mrs Von der Leyen claiming there is no alternative to the Protocol?
“She says it is the only way to preserve peace. She tries to sell the myth that in order to appease Republican terrorists the EU should be able to claim Northern Ireland as its own. She is effectively telling us that violence pays. That is no way to do politics.
“As for her claim that the Protocol is necessary to protect the EU single market again this is nonsense. If the EU is concerned about its single market then it should put the border where it belongs – as the UK’s international border with the Republic.
“Unionism needs to get serious about opposing the Protocol. That means that the staff manning the border are pulled. This should be an obvious first step by incoming DUP leader, Edwin Poots. No one else has the legal power to enforce the Sea Border.
“It is long past time Unionism took action which makes people like Mrs Von der Leyen sit up and take notice.”