Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“Since Sir Keir Starmer, it seems, choose to meet no unionists – certainly not TUV – on his visit to Northern Ireland, it is unsurprising that his line on the Protocol is exclusively nationalist.
“Peddling the line that Protocol issues can be resolved by more talks ignores two glaring realities: talks for months and years have produced nothing of substance because of EU intransigence and, secondly, there are deliberate design faults which can only be remedied by constitutional legislation.
“The fundamental offence of the Protocol is it decrees and operates on the twin evil that GB is a foreign country and that Northern Ireland must be governed by foreign laws under a foreign Single Market, Customs Code and VAT regime. These are matters which only U.K. legislation can rectify – whether the promised legislation will do so remains to be seen.
“These are not matters which can be tweaked into acceptable shape. They can only be remedied by the U.K. reclaiming the sovereignty which the Protocol surrendered. It truly is about ‘taking back control’, about ending the colonisation of NI in which the EU is engaged.
“With the Labour Party having long railed against colonialism, one might have expected Keir Starmer to be concerned about these issues, but, seemingly, not.”