As the Brexit deadline approaches, the Ulster Unionist Leader Steve Aiken OBE MLA has called for an end to Northern Ireland and its people being used as pawns in the Brexit negotiations.  

Steve Aiken OBE MLA said:

“With less than 100 days to go to the end of the Brexit transition period, we are disgusted at the current state of play with regard to Brexit as the EU seeks to renegotiate the Belfast Agreement via the back door.  

“The people of Northern Ireland have been used as pawns by the EU to pressurise the UK Government and it is simply outrageous that the EU - cheered on by the Government of the Republic of Ireland and northern nationalism - has sought to make Northern Ireland part of the price the UK must pay for Brexit.

“The fact that we find ourselves in this position is the result of the failure of diplomacy between the UK and the EU. 

“In particular we are concerned that so many people who are all too willing to invoke the Belfast Agreement to prevent any physical manifestation of a land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, have no qualms about imposing a barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

“It is simply not credible to claim that trade barriers between Northern Ireland and the Republic would breach the Belfast Agreement, but that trade barriers between Northern Ireland and Great Britain would not. We are very clear that any impediment to trade – in either direction – between Northern Ireland and Great Britain is a clear breach of the Belfast Agreement and such a development will be as unhelpful as it is unwelcome.

“During the debate in the Assembly on Tuesday, I called upon all political parties to join with the Ulster Unionist Party in writing to Michel Barnier and Michael Gove, who are holding informal talks in London over the next few days. I want to ask them to stop using Northern Ireland as a political football and for both of them to use their best endeavours to ensure that certainty is provided now to the people they purport to be supporting through the Belfast Agreement.

“That would be the best way to show they truly believe in peace - by taking Northern Ireland off the negotiating table now.”