Government's rejection of unionist bid to block new EU rules shows DUP deal was 'a farce' - Allister

Did you know with an ad-lite subscription to NorthernIrelandWorld, you get 70% fewer ads while viewing the news that matters to you. Jim Allister’s comments come after an attempt by unionist MLAs to block rules on craft and industrial products was rejected. The DUP had brought an applicability motion to the Assembly last year in an attempt to block the changes.

That was a mechanism set up under the Windsor Framework to give what had been described as a “democratic safeguard” for Northern Ireland, which has no formal input into EU laws that apply here under the Protocol. Advertisement Advertisement North Antrim MP Jim Allister said the decision by the Government “to plough ahead and add a new EU rule to the Windsor Framework, in spite of Unionists unanimously opposing it, is yet more evidence that the much vaunted Safeguarding the Union deal was a farce”. He added: “This is the second occasion when the Government has dismissed Unionist concerns and ridden roughshod over their objections.



“It is yet further evidence of the lies on which the so-called Safeguarding the Union deal was sold to the public. Far from safeguarding the Union, the deal was one which amounted to surrendering the Union as Unionists meekly accepted a return to Stormont as Protocol implementors. “It is obvious that the Government has calculated that it can afford to treat Unionist objections with contempt.

That attitude is understandable when Unionists meekly returned to Stormont on the basis of a deal which did nothing to reverse the constitutional damage of the Protocol. Advertisement Advertisement “Unless or until Unionists show some backbone decisions like that made today will continue to be made and bit by bit our position within the United Kingdom will continue to be eroded.” Loyalist Jamie Bryson , who opposed the DUP’s deal to restore Stormont, said: “People like me, Jim Allister and Kate Hoey were derided and shouted down by, including others, Gavin Robinson.

We were told we were dead end unionists and it was us who was wrong”. “The dead end unionists were dead right”, he said. National World encourages reader discussion on our stories.

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