Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“When campaigning for the leadership of the DUP Edwin Poots was boycotting North / South meetings. Now that he has got the job he has embraced them. Crucially, he has decided to do that while our East/West relationships continue to be trashed by the Protocol.
“The last 24 hours have exposed a party which is now characterised by back somersaults in terms of policy and waffle in a vain attempt to explain them.
“Mr Poots might claim he wants rid of the very Protocol he is implementing but the man who brought us the Poots Posts is refusing to take the necessary counter measures in terms of the North South Ministerial Council to bring the matter to a head.
“The Protocol isn’t a matter of finding a fix. We need to grasp the true nature of its constitutional ramifications. We have been left in a foreign single market for goods, subject to a foreign customs code and foreign VAT regime, all over seen by a foreign court. No fix can change the essence of Protocol. It is a transfer of sovereignty and a constitutional abomination.
“From my discussions with Mrs Foster it was clear that she grasped this. I am not sure Mr Poots does.
“Add to all that the fact that the rollover Poots leadership looks set to deliver Irish language legislation and there is much to concern Unionism about the DUP leadership. The ordinary Unionist doesn’t care what it is called. What matters is what it does. We can all read the legislation and see it includes a supercharged Irish language commissioner who will impose Irish across Northern Ireland. What a legacy that would be for the leader of Unionism to leave behind!”