Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“Unionism faces a defining choice: re-enter Stormont and thereby become Protocol implementers and thus Union dismantlers, or, stand firm.
“It isn’t a choice which should be difficult for anyone who recognises the reality of the Protocol – NI annexed under the EU’s Customs Code and Single Market regimes and thereby ruled in substantial measure by foreign laws, overseen by a foreign court, with the consequence made unmistakably clear by a partitioning border in the Irish Sea.
“To return to Stormont is to actively implement the Irish Sea border and these foreign laws, which align our economy emphatically with the Republic of Ireland through identical single market and trading laws, diverging us all the time from GB. Thus, to operate Stormont now is to accept that never again will NI be a full part of the U.K., but rather is in a process of transition towards the Protocol’s ultimate objective, Irish unification.
“To me and TUV there is no option but for Unionism to reject such a kamikaze option as legitimising foreign rule by reactivating Stormont.”