Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Bertie Ahern’s claims on Radio Ulster this morning that there is a “lack of understanding” within loyalism and that the constitutional position of Northern Ireland under the Protocol “needs to be explained” to them were not only deeply patronising but also wrong.
“Grassroots Unionism saw through the bluster and blether long before even the lead Unionist party woke up to the issue. They recognised that a country’s constitutional position cannot have remained unchanged if, suddenly, you have the imposition of an internal trade border and laws which you do not make and cannot change overseen by a foreign court.
“No amount of spin by Mr Ahern can obscure the reality that constitutional change has already taken place. One need look no further than the arguments advanced by the UK Government in the case taken against the Protocol. Just a few weeks ago they openly said in court that the Protocol “disapplies” Article Six of the Acts of Union.
“Article 6 of the Acts of Union is what creates the economic union by providing that all trade between and within the U.K. shall be on “the same footing”. The Protocol, of course, trashes that by putting a trade border in the Irish Sea.
“The fact that constitutional change has already taken place is beyond dispute. This is not, therefore, a matter of a “lack of understanding” within Unionism. Unionism understands all too well what changes have been made and why advocates of an all-Ireland – like Mr Ahern – are anxious to put a stop to opposition which threatens to derail the Protocol.”