Statement by TUV North Down chairman Peter Wilson:
“The announcement of the so-called UK-EU Reset Deal represents yet another disgraceful betrayal of the Union and a shameful continuation of the Irish Sea border, which separates Northern Ireland from the rest of our United Kingdom. Let there be no doubt – this is not a deal to safeguard the Union, but rather to cement the constitutional and economic annexation of Northern Ireland by the European Union.
“We in the TUV reject entirely the notion that the Irish Sea border has gone. If the border was truly gone, why is the Government still spending millions of pounds constructing permanent border posts at our ports, particularly in Larne? These are not symbolic gestures – they are physical manifestations of a regulatory and customs frontier between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, a frontier imposed at the behest of Brussels and with the active compliance of the DUP.
“The DUP’s so-called “Safeguarding the Union” document has been exposed as the sham that it is. Repeating the fiction that the Irish Sea border has been removed is not just disingenuous – it is insulting to the people of Northern Ireland who were promised the benefits of full Brexit but have instead been abandoned as a semi-detached province under foreign rule.
“We now know that the EU will continue to impose its customs code, regulations, and tariffs on Northern Ireland. The continuation of EU Regulation 2017/625 – treating NI as part of the EU and GB as a foreign country – ensures that our economy remains in a straitjacket, unable to fully benefit from UK-wide trade or domestic policy.
“As our leader Jim Allister KC MP has rightly pointed out, the new SPS arrangements are made between the EU and Great Britain, because Northern Ireland is already considered EU territory. That is not sovereignty restored – it is sovereignty surrendered.
“And let’s not forget the parcel border that continues to restrict the movement of goods to our citizens. The idea that this deal brings normality or balance is nothing more than spin. The truth is that none of the underlying architecture of the Protocol has been dismantled.
“The people of North Down and all of Northern Ireland deserve honesty. They deserve leaders who will not capitulate for political convenience, but who will stand firm in defence of our place within the United Kingdom. The DUP have failed in that duty and now attempt to repackage surrender as success.
“The TUV will not be silenced. We will continue to expose these lies, stand against this betrayal, and fight for the full restoration of Northern Ireland’s place within the UK – politically, legally, and economically.”