Ulster Unionist Party Leader, Robin Swann MLA, has stated that EU negotiators and the Irish Government are playing fast and loose with the Belfast Agreement. He has welcomed media reports that the Scottish Conservative Leader, Ruth Davidson MSP, has made her views clear about the imposition of new controls on Northern Ireland and he also called on the UK Government to honour the Prime Minister`s words of commitment to the Union, warning that any deal which effectively makes Northern Ireland an EU protectorate ‘would be a betrayal’.

Robin Swann MLA said:

“The next few days will be pivotal in the history of Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. We have heard a lot of rumours about what may be coming down the tracks from the Brexit negotiations but we will study what is actually produced in any text. The Government finds itself in the negotiating bind that it does because of the strategic blunder of allowing the so called backstop to be negotiated into last December`s agreement and calls into question the value and influence which the DUP claimed to have through their Confidence and Supply Agreement with the Conservative Government.

“I welcome reports in the Sunday Times of support from Scottish Conservative Leader Ruth Davidson MSP and Scottish Secretary of State David Mundell MP for their position that new controls separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK are unacceptable. We have repeatedly stated that Unionists who voted to remain in the EU were not voting for Northern Ireland or indeed Scotland to leave the UK. Those views must be recognised and respected and not deliberately and wilfully misrepresented. The majority of people in Northern Ireland certainly did not vote for Northern Ireland to leave the UK.

“Brussels cannot simply dismiss the potential constitutional consequences of Brexit as something that they don't have to be concerned about as part of negotiations. That approach ignores the Belfast Agreement and the principle of consent which underpinned it. They are playing fast and loose with an agreement which underpinned the relative peace which we have today. The EU negotiators, the Irish Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney and their colleagues should be mindful of that. It certainly looks like the Belfast Agreement is being used and abused, twisted and contorted by those who are seeking to exploit the situation. These same people claim they don`t want a hard border on the island of Ireland but seem content to see economic, regulatory barriers imposed between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom which would have a huge detrimental impact on the local economy. It`s time to wind down the rhetoric and concentrate on trying to get a sensible deal. Any border down the Irish Sea, regulatory or otherwise would be as bad as a no deal Brexit for Northern Ireland and indeed the Republic of Ireland.

“Our own national Government should be under no illusions about the views of Unionists in Northern Ireland and beyond. A deal that puts any border down the Irish Sea will be unacceptable to me, my party and the wider unionist population. It will have repercussions in Scotland as well. As I said last week, I welcomed the Prime Minister`s strong words in defence of the Union. Now we want to see the Conservative Government follow through on those words as they approach crunch time in the Brexit negotiations. And no matter what way a deal might be dressed up, any deal which opens up Northern Ireland to being treated as an EU protectorate, with regulations imposed on us by Brussels in tandem with Dublin, would be a betrayal.”