Statement by TUV deputy leader Court Councillor Ron McDowell:
“Today I express my party and my own solidarity with those on strike. I support my colleagues in Unite in their just demand for fair pay. At the heart of the founding document of Northern Ireland, the Ulster Covenant, was the issue of equal citizenship within the United Kingdom. When strikers down tools to secure pay parity with those who do the same jobs in the rest of the UK, therefore, that is something which we in TUV unapologetically support.
“TUV is equally clear about where the blame for this issue lies. The Secretary of State is under a legal obligation to call an election on Thursday. He has already said he will not do that. With the stroke of a pen he can change the law requiring him to call an election. Similarly, the Secretary of State could use that same pen to release the money for public sector workers. It is shameful that he boasts Casement Park will get whatever it needs but he will not release the money for frontline workers experiencing real hardship.
“It is disappointing that, at a time when Unionists should be united in opposition to the Union dismantling Protocol and in placing the blame where it deserves to be, there are some within Unionism who shamefully seek to use the hardship of public sector workers to further their desire for ministerial office in a Sinn Fein dominated executive.
“It is Chris Heaton-Harris who is holding on to the purse strings here. He has accepted that Northern Ireland needs £3.3 billion. Having done so, he should release it immediately.”