Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference this afternoon Jim Allister said:
“In Manchester today – under the principles and purposes of the Protocol- I am in a ‘third country’ as far as Protocol ruled Northern Ireland is concerned. Bolivia or Britain, customs checks apply to goods and supplies to NI.
“That is an affront to our supposed status as an integral part of the United Kingdom and an intolerable affront to our Britishness. Is it an affront to the Conservative and Unionist Party?
“Bad as the economic dislocation is, it is the constitutional dislocation that I want to address.
“What is constitutional change, if it is not the transfer of sovereignty.
“By placing my part of the U.K. – and only NI – under the rules and processes of a foreign Single Market for goods, and subject to a foreign Customs Code and VAT regime, and all the foreign laws that govern those matters – laws we can’t change but must meekly accept – and all overseen by a foreign court – there has been a transfer of sovereignty.
“Two thirds of the laws that govern our economy are now made, not in Belfast or London, but in Brussels. That is constitutional change – and all that without a sliver of consent, despite the supposed assurances of the Belfast Agreement to the contrary.
“Brexit was supposed to be about ‘taking back control’; in our case it was about handing away control. We did not get Brexit, we got the Brexit-denying Protocol.
“The extent to which the prevailing situation conflicts with our constitutional position was vividly illustrated by the recent judgement in our Judicial Review challenge, when the High Court in Belfast ruled that the Protocol is incompatible with Art 6 of the Acts of Union.
“It is the Acts of Union that formed this Union – both economic and political. The economic union is rooted in Art 6, which guarantees the same footing for all parts of the Kingdom when it comes to trade and commerce. Patently, the Protocol shreds that and thereby destroys our economic union. There is no more seminal treatise than the Acts of Union. The proclaimed repeal of Article 6 rocks this Union to its foundations.
“But the political consequences don’t end there.
“The motivation and purpose of the Protocol is to build an all-Ireland economically, in the belief that political union will follow.
“By curbing our trade from GB, business and thus the economy is compelled to look increasingly to the Republic. To look to Dublin, not London. Just as the EU itself built political union through economic union, so they hope the same template can apply.
“Thus, in every sense, this is a Union-dismantling Protocol.
“Given that shockingly this has been put upon us by a ‘Conservative and Unionist’ government, the question is when are you going to right this great wrong? Or will perfidy continue to rule?
“The onus is on you, Prime Minister.
“In conclusion let me make it clear, the test for me for any tinkering and changes is the simple but defining one – are we still left subject to a foreign single market for goods, subject to a foreign customs code and vat regime and under the rule of foreign laws and court. If so, you will have solved nothing.
“Restoring a United Kingdom requires the Protocol to go in all its parts.”