Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“The intended and baleful intervention by the Secretary of State in the supposed devolved matter of abortion is significant in at least three regards.
1. It, as with the original legislative intervention in 2019, shows contemptuous disregard for what is deemed a devolved issue, which is all the more acute coming as it does within days of the Assembly voting to diminish one of the imposed grounds for abortion.
2. It stands in sharp contrast with the willingness of HMG to surrender key control over Northern Ireland to a foreign power when it came to ceding NI to the EU under the iniquitous Protocol.
3. It will raise for many the fundamental question of what value is there now in devolution if Westminster can denude it of control in the one area that justified for some paying the price of Sinn Fein rule in a flawed system of supposed local power.
“If we can be subject to Direct Rule when it suits on the moral issues which matter to many, then, this highly retrograde step does indeed throw up searching questions as to what devolution is contributing, especially when it comes at the price of Sinn Fein rule on everything else?”