Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“I have no issue with the reduction in salary, but any Secretary of State who thinks financial penalty will dilute essential rejection of the Union-dismantling Protocol is gravely mistaken, certainly as far as TUV is concerned and any unionist who sees the Protocol as the EU sovereignty grab that it is.
“The Secretary of State should get his focus on recovering full U.K. sovereignty over the territory of which he is Secretary of State. Focus on talks with Brussels which cannot deliver this, because the EU mandate for those talks excludes surrender of their ill-gotten sovereignty, only delays both facing up to the core issue and any prospect of restoration of the Stormont institutions.
“Unionists must continue to stand firm, rejecting either blandishment or threats and any outcome which leaves this part of the U.K. subject to foreign laws and GB in trade terms treated as a foreign country. On these issues there can be no compromise.”