Speaking in Lisburn on Friday night at a Lagan Valley TUV fund-raising dinner, TUV leader Jim Allister said:-
“TUV’s stance on the Protocol is not election led. Principle, not expediency is our guide. TUV has led the way in legal and political challenge. Action, not dither has been our approach.
From the start we saw the Protocol for what it is:
- an instrument to break up the United Kingdom;
- device to leave NI, allied with the Republic, under the foreign sovereignty of the EU;
- and designed to force an economic all-Ireland as a stepping stone to Irish unity.
“Though, the DUP has now been brought to its present position – and grassroots pressure and the polls performance of TUV have played key roles in spurring election timed action – voters are not stupid and know who initially talked foolishly about ‘opportunities’ in the Protocol and who called it out as the betrayal it is.
“I’m glad Sir Jeffrey has retreated from his foolhardy claim on BBC Spotlight that “Customs checks doesn’t mean that you change the constitution status of a part of the U.K.” (see
“Customs checks mean precisely that because they signify moving from one jurisdiction to another, in this case moving from U.K. control to EU control when goods pass from GB to NI. That is the core constitutional iniquity of the Protocol.
“Complicity in implementing this Union-dismantling Protocol was total folly. Hence our opposition to the Poots Posts and the checks that bedded in the Irish Sea border.
“TUV was always clear that if the price of Stormont was implementing the Protocol, then it is a price no unionist can pay, or ever should have paid.
“This battle is not yet over and will not be until the EU gives up its ill-gotten sovereignty over us. We must cease to be part of a foreign single market, under a foreign customs code and VAT regime, all governed by foreign laws we don’t make and can’t change and overseen by a foreign court. Such is not compatible with being part of the United Kingdom. Hence this Protocol is irredeemable. It must go.
“Going forward, voters should rely on those who called it right from the beginning and who will keep others to their pledges. TUV is the real deal.”