Ulster Unionist Party Chief Whip and Brexit spokesperson, Steve Aiken MLA, has stated that Boris Johnson`s claims that the whole of the United Kingdom will be treated exactly the same as it leaves the EU is a total sham.

Mr Aiken said:

“I don`t know what strategy the DUP were deploying while they were joined at the hip to Boris Johnson, but it is very clear that it didn`t work. By her own admission Arlene Foster isn’t over ‘every single jot and tittle’ and didn`t previously read legislation, but this is a precarious time for the future of the Union under Boris Johnson`s deal and the DUP should have been across ‘every single jot and tittle’ of detail in their negotiations with the Government.

“The latest revelations that companies will have to complete import declarations for trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is absolutely outrageous. HMRC suggests the administrative burden will be ‘£15 to £56 per declaration’. This exposes Boris Johnson`s claims that the whole of United Kingdom would be treated exactly the same as we leave the EU as a total sham. The fact that it is being perpetrated by a so called Conservative and Unionist Prime Minister is unbelievable.

“Unfortunately these are the out-workings of the DUP`s strategic blunder in agreeing to a regulatory border in the Irish Sea. I am glad that they have belatedly realised their enormity of their mistake, and I sincerely hope it is not too late. The DUP should terminate their Confidence and Supply Agreement with this Tory Government as it seeks to impose mechanisms which will treat Northern Ireland as a place apart, and which have thrown us overboard to be adjudicated over at the whims of the EU and Mr Johnson`s unprincipled Government.”