Statement by TUV Strangford candidate Ron McDowell:
“In deciding how to vote on 4 July it is important to consider how those given the responsibility to represent unionism in the House of Commons – the 8 DUP MPs – performed in the 2019-2024 Parliament.
“One of the most important debates and votes of the last Parliament, if not the most important debate and vote, related to the removal, at the EU’s request, of the requirement for Cross Community Consent in relation to Stormont decision making in November 2020.
“Cross Community Consent is one of the core principles at the heart of the Belfast Agreement. It provides both unionist and nationalist communities with the assurance that in the event a measure is brought forward that that represents an existential threat to either of them, they could require the application of Cross Community Consent so that a simple majority would not be sufficient for the measure to succeed.
“The proposal to come before Stormont that constitutes the greatest existential threat to unionism since 1999, and indeed at any time since 1921, is the proposal that the rights of the people of Northern Ireland to be represented in the laws to which they are subject in some 300 areas be renounced by their MLAs for a period of between 4 to 8 years and that this function be handed over to the Republic of Ireland and the other EU member states.
“Had the EU not interfered in the government of Northern Ireland and pressed the UK Government to suspend this key pillar of the Good Friday Agreement, Stormont wouldn’t have collapsed between 2022 and 2024.
“The removal of this key protection in relation to the Stormont proposition that constitutes the greatest existential threat to unionism in its history came to Parliament in November 2020: The Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland (Democratic Consent Process) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020.
“In this regard the MPs entrusted with representing unionism had a huge responsibility in relation to which they let us down in a way that is almost unimaginable:
“First, none of the 8 MPs turned up to the parliamentary debate on the legislation which took place on 26 November 2020 in order to use their right to speak in it and warn MPs and the wider world about the very dangerous and destabilising implications of the measure. Although the DUP MPs were not members of the committee, they, along with all other MPs, had a right to attend and speak to the legislation. In the event the only people who spoke on this critical Northern Ireland legislation were the Conservative Minister and the Labour Shadow Minister!
“Second, all 8 MPs had the opportunity to oppose the legislation on 30 November when it was brought to the floor of the House of Commons. When the Speaker read out the legislation they could have shouted ‘no!’ which would have then forced a proper vote on the legislation, affording them and others the opportunity to vote against the legislation in the context of a media campaign.
“In an utterly extraordinary turn of events not one DUP MP bothered to speak on 26th or oppose the legislation on 30 November, giving the impression that unionists were content to let go of Cross Community Consent, even though its removal would condemn us to having no government for two years and to huge challenges going forward that we will encounter later this year.
“Even more extraordinarily, the DUP did not prioritise the restoration of Cross Community Consent as a basic minimum for their Safeguarding the Union deal. Instead, they settled for a requirement that effectively cemented in its removal. They asked that the report that already had to be produced in the event of a majoritarian decision without cross community consent (and in relation to which no one is required to take action) must be produced within 6 months!
“This is utterly extraordinary and speaks of a group of unionist MPs who, although entrusted with a solemn responsibility, were asleep at the wheel.
“We are now just months away from the first majoritarian Stormont vote on a matter of huge controversy for the first time in fifty years, and the most controversial majoritarian vote in the history of Stormont.
“It is clear (because of the above and the wider failings of Safeguarding the Union and false claims made in relation to it) that the DUP no longer has the competence to represent unionism in Parliament.
“Things cannot go on like this a moment longer.
“The time for handing the batten on to the TUV has arrived.
“Vote TUV on 4 July for the honest and competent unionist representation in Parliament that we so badly need.”