Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“If what HMG said today on the Protocol was the ‘good news’ promised by the DUP, through Edwin Poots, then, it is gravely disappointing.
“Mere words and pleas for realism from belligerent Brussels will change nothing.
“The diversion of trade and societal upheaval caused by the Union-dismantling Protocol more than justifies action under Article 16, but, instead, the government stalls and prevaricates.
“Mere tinkering, like words, will change nothing. The test for any changes going forward remains – does it still leave us in a foreign single market for goods, subject to a foreign customs code, implemented by foreign laws and adjudicated upon by a foreign court. If so, then nothing of importance will change and the constitutional change wrought by the Protocol will not have been reversed.
“With Article 6 of the Act of Union – the cornerstone of the Union – having been repealed, only the binning of the Protocol can and will change that.
“So, my message to the Government today is ‘while you vacillate and procrastinate the Union weakens and the Prime Minister fails in his pledge to maintain the integrity of the United Kingdom.’ And, my message to the unionist people is that we must continue relentless in opposition to the iniquitous Protocol, clear in the knowledge that if we don’t kill the Protocol, it will kill the Union.”