Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“The terms of reference of the Murphy Review reveal and confirm the basic inequity at the heart of the Protocol itself.
“Though the Protocol was imposed without any reference to or need for cross community support, and was designed to meet only nationalist objectives, so, now, too, the Review embraces and cements that imbalance. This is because any changes it recommends must have cross-community consent! What a calculated two fingers to unionism – the Union-dismantling Protocol will be imposed without your consent, but any changes must have nationalist consent!
“Para 3.5 is the key provision:-
“In making recommendations to the Government in its report, the Review must give consideration to and set out how any recommendations:
3.5.1. will command the support of both communities in Northern Ireland;”
“If this is what the dud Donaldson/DUP deal negotiated – remembering the review is the product of that deal – then, what an unmitigated failure. Far from providing a path to change, the Review outcome is tethered to nationalist consent. Once more unionists are being treated as fools.”