Statement by TUV Strangford representative Councillor Stephen Cooper:
“Whether it is Nancy Pelosi on Twitter or Dublin’s Prime Minister on a trip to Belfast the interference of foreign figures in what are internal U.K. matters is unwelcome and inappropriate.
“Mr Martin has no business lecturing Unionists on what they can and cannot do. His belligerent meddling should be met with the contempt it deserves and frankly Unionists should not even be meeting him. Bad as it was, the Belfast Agreement at least acknowledged that strand one matters – those which concerned the internal government of Northern Ireland – were something in which the Republic had no say.
“Now, because tens of thousands of Unionists exploded the media created myth that no one cares about the Protocol by voting TUV – No Sea Border two weeks ago, Mr Martin is panicking. Panicking because the territory-grabbing Protocol is threatened with derailment.
“Now is not the time to be accommodating to Dublin’s supposed concerns. The belligerence of Dublin and Brussels brought us to this point. It is time to stand firm and make clear that there will be no accommodation of a Protocol which we recognise is cyanide to the Union”.