Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“As speculation mounts on the content of the EU’s legal text of last December’s ‘deal’, those committed both to a proper Brexit and Northern Ireland’s full position within the UK need to be alert to the malevolent machinations of Brussels.
“Last December’s phase 1 ‘agreement’ was a calculated fudge which the EU is now exploiting to tighten the noose. Brussels is shamelessly using Northern Ireland to not just try and break Brexit but, if that fails, to hive NI off from the rest of the UK. Advancing such an all-Ireland agenda lies at the heart of the EU strategy and that of its anti-British cheerleaders.
“No Unionist should be ignorant of the game plan. Tying NI into the EU so that it is effectively treated as part of Ireland, rather than part of a UK that has departed the EU, is the Brussels plan. Constitutional sabotage is its aim.
“It will be a test of the UK government, which holds office only on the sufferance of Unionists, as to whether it moves with the robustness required to derail Brussels’ stratagem. We are a province of the UK, not of the EU and must emphatically remain so.
“HMG, and those who sustain it, should not shy away from the conclusion that in these circumstances ‘no deal’ is better than the type of destructive deal the draft treaty terms suggest.”