Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“It is clear the Secretary of State, disgracefully, is using the budget as a stick to try and beat Unionism into submission over Stormont.
“Ironically, Stormont’s squander and mismanagement has contributed substantially to the poor budgetary situation.
“If Chris Heaton-Harris thinks the stick of this budget and then the carrot of a financial bung will cause Unionists to roll over and implement the Union-dismantling Protocol, then, I trust he will be severely disappointed. Unionists must stand firm. I cannot speak for others, but TUV will not be bought or bullied.
“Yet, amidst all the outcry over the budget, it must be remembered that when Stormont last existed, it too failed to agree a budget. What should have been produced in December by the Executive was still not agreed when Stormont fell, with Sinn Fein peddling its own draft budget.
“A practical legacy of Stormont mismanagement is demonstrated by the punitive shortfall in DFI, where the department choose to devote too much of its budget to building needless cycle lanes, leaving road maintenance badly short. In Northern Area millions were squandered on extravagant cycle lanes around Coleraine while surrounding roads as full of potholes. This is down to the folly of Stormont.”