Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“It is disappointing, even alarming, to have the UUP leader deny on Sunday Politics that the Protocol is a threat to the Union.
“Any unionist who understands the Protocol could not adopt such a complacent and unwarranted stance.
“It couldn’t be clearer: the Protocol requires GB to be treated as a foreign country for trade with NI, subjects us, colony-like, to foreign laws and jurisdiction, regards NI as the entry point into the EU single market, places us under the rules of the EU’s Customs Code and VAT regime and in the words of the Court of Appeal subjugates Article 6 of the Acts of Union – the very basis of the economic single market of the United Kingdom.
“Mr Beattie’s latest stance is, of course, also a significant departure from the joint unionist declaration to which he subscribed on 28 September 2021. The agreed ‘Explanatory Note’ accompanying the Declaration clearly expounded all the above constitutional damage to the Union.
“It can only be music to the ears of all who wish such constitutional damage to hear the UUP leader now deny the obvious.”