Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“I’d like to put down the anti-Brexit euphoria for Mrs May’s deal from business interests as naivety, but when you see the ‘usual suspects’ – headed up by the CBI – line up as government supplicants you soon recognise the lackey syndrome.
“How the UFU in particular could join this chorus of embracing the break-up of the UK single market – on which they depend – is beyond rationalisation. Urging MPs to vote for an Irish Sea regulatory border is madness, as well as accepting NI as part of the EU’s custom territory. Have they forgotten the business supply chain is a two way process and, therefore, rushing to impede GB/NI trade is as dangerous as it is absurd.
“I’m greatly disappointed that the UFU has abandoned the settled will of most farmers that they wish to leave the EU in all its parts.
“Now is a time for anyone who values the prosperity which the UK Union has brought us to recognise that at this seminal moment to endorse Mrs May’s plan is to endorse the break-up of the UK. I do not believe such accords with the desires of Ulster farmers. Pity it seems to be the vision of their union.”