Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-

“Whether Boris Johnston stays or goes is of less significance than whether the Protocol stays or goes, because it is the Protocol which is dismantling the Union of which he is Prime Minister.

“The priority for unionists is and remains the removal of the iniquitous Protocol – that which decrees and operates on the basis that GB is a foreign country and which, colony like, subjects us to laws and tax rules we don’t make and can’t change.

“Any government legislation must lay the axe to the root of the problem, which in legislative terms is found in section 7A of EU Withdrawal Act 2018 (as amended by EUWAA 2020) and in section 8C. The supremacy of the Protocol over, for example, Art 6 of the Acts of Union must be reversed by the repeal of section 7A EUWA 2018.

“This is how I will judge any Bill and whether it still leaves us subject to foreign jurisdiction and whether it fully restores us into the U.K. single market and customs union of which we must be an indisputable and integral part.”