Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister upon conclusion of arguments in the Supreme Court in the Protocol case:-
“HMG regularly proclaims opposition to the Protocol, yet, today, we had a vivid illustration in the Supreme Court of the duplicity which denotes its stance.
“Government lawyers, representing the Secretary of State and the entire government, openly argued not just in favour of the lawfulness of the Protocol, but that it emphatically “disapplies” Art 6 of the Act of Union.
“The Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a parliamentary and economic union. That is what the Acts of Union, both the Irish and Scottish, created: a unified Parliament and a unified economy and single market.
“Art 6 of the Acts of Union is what creates the economic union by providing that all trade between and within the U.K. shall be on “the same footing”. The Protocol, of course, trashes that by putting a trade border in the Irish Sea.
“Today, the Government, faced with the prohibitions in Article 6, boldly argued, in order to contend for the legality of the Protocol, that its effect is to “disapply” Article 6 and, indeed, any other provision that stands in its way, which could even include the consent principle of Section 1 of the NI Act 1998.
“This argument, if approved by the Court, applies a wrecking ball to our Union. Once, of course, the economic union is not sacrosanct, then, nothing in the Acts of Union is safe.
“The Jesuitical pretence that there is a practical distinction between “disapplication” and “repeal” only adds disingenuous spin. If something is disapplied it is of no effect and might as well be repealed.
“HMG’s argument should bring home to every unionist just how constitutionally dire and dangerous the Protocol is. Moreover, it should confirm Unionists who care in their resolve that the Protocol must go and that there can be no let up in the political campaign against it, including the refusal to operate institutions which of necessity would have to implement this dismantling of the Union.”