Ulster Unionist Leader, Steve Aiken OBE MLA, has stated that it`s time for the UK Government to come off the sidelines and protect Northern Ireland and its interests. It is clear that the EU won`t.

Mr Aiken said:

“Friday was a tipping point. The EU cynically and deliberately used Northern Ireland in an attempt to cover up their vaccine omnishambles with a political one. The UUP has for many years been pointing out the folly of a border in the Irish Sea whilst others protested that a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic had to be resisted at all costs, even though an international border already exists. For a short period yesterday, we saw a hard land border created - not by the United Kingdom, not by Unionism, but instead by the European Union itself.

“The tortuous negotiation of the Northern Ireland Protocol was supposedly designed to prevent a hard border, but the EU`s actions clearly demonstrated that this was a sham. I hope that those who naively expressed the desire for the rigorous implementation of the protocol here in Northern Ireland - the Republic, the EU and Washington - will now acknowledge the problems with the protocol.

“In the light of the debacle, all parties who rightly condemned the EU triggering of Article 16 should call for the immediate suspension and renegotiation of the protocol in the interests of all of the people of Northern Ireland. On 30 December 2020 the Ulster Unionist Party tabled an amendment in the Assembly calling for Article 16 to be invoked to protect Northern Ireland from the direct consequences of the protocol. Regrettably this was defeated, but hopefully that can be reversed. We should work together to curtail the protocol.

“The EU`s actions show that they do not have our best interests at heart. Northern Ireland and its people have been cynically used and exploited as a negotiating chip by the EU and they will do it again in the future for selfish political reasons. Therefore it`s long past time for the UK Government to step in to protect Northern Ireland`s interests. The reasons given by the EU for triggering Article 16 were unwarranted, however Northern Ireland`s are very real, including disruptions to trade and growing societal anger. It would be a weak UK Government that would continue to sit on the sidelines as an observer and let its people be treated in such a manner.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

30 December 2020 - Ulster Unionist Party Amendment to motion:

‘That this Assembly takes note of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union’

At end insert:

; and calls on the United Kingdom Government, in view of the very serious impediments to the Northern Ireland economy being created by the Trade and Co-operation Agreement and the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, to apply safeguard measures as laid out in Article 16 of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland for a period of at least one year.

Hansard:

http://data.niassembly.gov.uk/HansardXml/plenary-30-12-2020.pdf