TUV leader Jim Allister met NIO Minister of State Steve Baker this afternoon. Speaking after the meeting Jim Allister said:
“Today, Ulster Day, I met with Minister Baker to stress the importance of Northern Ireland’s cherished position of equal citizenship within the U.K. being restored. Naturally our discussions focused on the Protocol and the fact that having lived for decades with the fear of constitutional change Unionists have now had constitutional change imposed upon them. I stressed the fact that it was intolerable that the rest of the nation should in trading terms be regarded as a foreign country and that every day the Protocol remains it is becoming more embedded and eroding our place within the UK.
“Minister Baker listened to my points attentively and, in contrast with previous NIO Ministers, clearly understood and seemed to share many of my concerns. However, as I pointed out the time for sympathetic words is over. Now is the time for robust action by His Majesty’s Government and an asserting of U.K. sovereignty in this part of the United Kingdom. There is a fundamental contradiction in a Minister saying that he wants to preserve the integrity of the U.K. while just a few days ago the Government was arguing in the Poots’ case that the Protocol meant that we should be treated differently.
“Minister Baker is clearly conscious that he comes to the NIO having made robust commentary about the Protocol in the past. The test is now if there will be delivery. I remain disappointed that the Secretary of State has cited the return of devolution and not the restoration of sovereignty as the Government’s top priority when it comes to Northern Ireland and would urge all Unionists to hold the line and not buy into promises of jam tomorrow if they revert to a situation where they are implementing the Protocol again.
“Words are well and good but today and in the days ahead I will be stressing that the Government needs to be doing the right thing.”