Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Mrs May has often been vocal about what she calls “our precious Union” yet it is telling that the most enthusiastic supporters of her Brussels deal are those most enthusiastic about breaking up the United Kingdom – Sinn Fein/IRA. Sinn Fein in step with Mrs May is an even less pretty sight than her African jig.
“The Prime Minister’s deal will result in a hard border down the Irish Sea and disrupt trade with Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. Why should we prioritise our trade from the Republic – worth £2 billion pa – over our trade from Great Britain – worth £11.6 billion pa?
“There is no economic logic to the deal. One is forced therefore to conclude that it is politics which is causing the Prime Minister to carve off Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. The constitutional implications of Art 15 of the Irish Protocol decreeing Northern Ireland as part of the customs territory of the EU cannot be exaggerated. It would not only leave us alone within the UK subject to the rules and tariffs of the EU Customs Code (with not input into shaping same), but it would remove us from the customs territory (and thus from the benefit of any future trade deals) of our own nation – because you cannot simultaneously be part of two different custom territories. What the IRA couldn’t achieve by the bomb, Mrs May hands them on a plate.
“Her claim that the deal gives us the best of both worlds is, simply, a lie as it does not permit frictionless trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Yet it is that trade which is vital to supplying our supermarkets, farmers and industry.
“This deal lays the ground work for Irish unification as over time the difference between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK will increase as our economies by this design grow apart. While the UK has some hope of extracting itself from the tentacles of the EU there is no such hope for Northern Ireland under this deal. Small wonder that Republicans back it with such enthusiasm.”