Statement by TUV Banbridge council candidate Brian Moorhead:
“It has been clear for some time that the UUP leader just doesn’t get the seriousness of the Protocol. On Ulster Day 2021 he joined other Unionist leaders in solemnly pledging that it was his “unalterable position that the Protocol must be rejected and replaced by arrangements which fully respect Northern Ireland’s position as a constituent and integral part of the United Kingdom”.
“Yet this morning he was on Radio Ulster urging us to “capture the opportunities” of the Protocol. He even went so far as to suggest that those so-called “opportunities” would “strengthen our Union”!
“Mr Beattie needs to get real. The Protocol rides roughshod over our place in the U.K. It leaves Northern Ireland alone in the EU single market and customs union; creating a border in the Irish Sea. The highest court in the land has ruled that the impact of this is such that Article VI of the Acts of Union, the very foundation of the state, has been subjugated by the Protocol he foolishly claims can strengthen the Union. Furthermore, when challenged about the issue online he treats it as a joke.
“Being in a foreign single market and customs union to the rest of the U.K. is no laughing matter.
“I disagreed with his predecessor David Trimble on many issues but Mr Trimble was fundamentally correct when he said the Union is the Act of Union. It is time Mr Beattie learned this too.”