A TUV delegation met with the Secretary of State this morning. The delegation was comprised of Jim Allister, Councillor Timothy Gaston and press officer Samuel Morrison.
Commenting after meeting with Julian Smith, Jim Allister said:
“We had a straight-talking meeting with the Secretary of State in which we stressed that the Government’s attempts to resurrect an unreformed Stormont are doomed to failure. We made the point that if after next Thursday, regardless of the result, the UK had to have a government with Boris Johnstone and Jeremy Corbyn as joint Prime Ministers no one would expect it to last. Yet in Northern Ireland, the Secretary of State is sadly focused on restoring a system which has failed time and again. Furthermore, in many ways the Belfast Agreement system is more ludicrous than the thought of a Johnstone/Corbyn government as one of the main parties in any restored executive doesn’t even believe Northern Ireland should exist.
“TUV urged the government to ditch the politics of failure and spelt out the alternatives which could be put in place. We reminded the Secretary of State that in the absence of devolution he had a responsibility to govern and that the crisis in health meant that direct rule ministers should be brought in.
“On the issue of Brexit, we left Mr Smith in no doubt about the feeling of betrayal within Unionism and the united opposition across our community to the Boris deal which produces Brexit for Great Britain but not for Northern Ireland. A situation that provides for frictionless trade on the island of Ireland at the expense of erecting a border in the Irish Sea cuts to the heart of the Act of Union. The Union has always been about economic as well as political union between the UK’s family of nations.
“We also raised the imposition of abortion and same sex marriage on Northern Ireland.
“We expressed our strong opposition to the free for all on abortion up to 12 or even 14 weeks proposed by the NIO and concerns about the limits to conscientious objection in their ongoing consultation.
“On the redefinition of marriage we were at least pleased to advised that the NIO is planning to consult on protections for churches and free speech – provisions which exist in Great Britain.”