Responding to this morning’s speech by the DUP leader Jim Allister said:
“Some fine words from the DUP leader this morning, but, of course, it is actions that count.
“Presenting the Prime Minister with the stark choice of saving the Protocol or saving the Stormont institutions is a long proclaimed TUV strategy, built on the realisation that if the price of Stormont is implementing the Union-dismantling Protocol then Stormont is unsustainable for any Unionist who puts the Union first.
“Likewise operating north-southery while our east-west links are trashed is utter folly.
“The down payment on Unionist intent and determination should be the immediate ending of all DAERA checks.
“The Protocol – which the High Court says has already repealed the foundation of the economic United Kingdom – is a vehicle to destroy the Union, having already delivered us into a foreign economic zone and subjected us to foreign laws. Hence, it is beyond redemption. It must go. Mere tinkering is not an option, nor is repackaging it as something capable of being controlled through new Belfast Agreement institutions – such aids, not inhibits the Protocol and its building of the stepping stone of an all-Ireland economy.
“The acid test for any Unionist to any solution to this matter is this – is Northern Ireland still in a foreign single market for goods, under a foreign customs code, subject to foreign laws over which we have no say and overseen by a foreign court? If that remains the case it will be always unacceptable.”