Allister and Bryson question DUP's apparent new policy - after it further distances itself from its own deal

By David Thompson
Published 18th Jun 2024, 18:12 BST
Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson (left) and TUV leader Jim Allister on the steps of Stormont in Belfast after unionist opponents of the Government deal published legal advice which was later dismissed by then-DUP-leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA WireLoyalist activist Jamie Bryson (left) and TUV leader Jim Allister on the steps of Stormont in Belfast after unionist opponents of the Government deal published legal advice which was later dismissed by then-DUP-leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson (left) and TUV leader Jim Allister on the steps of Stormont in Belfast after unionist opponents of the Government deal published legal advice which was later dismissed by then-DUP-leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
The DUP’s apparent change of policy on its Irish Sea border deal has not convinced critics the party “derided” over their opposition to its deal with the government in January.

Jim Allister has accused the party of performing a U-turn – while loyalist activist Jamie Bryson slammed the DUP for calling critics “dead end unionists”.

The TUV leader told the News Letter: “I and others have long exposed the folly of being willing to pay the price of submitting to foreign laws we don’t make and can’t change for the sake of supposed, but grossly exaggerated, benefits of access to the EU single market, while all the time our access to our own UK market was fettered by the same EU laws.

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“If, because of the election, the DUP, having first said the Irish Sea border was gone before retreating from that falsehood, is now acknowledging the folly of that which they pledged fidelity to in the useless Donaldson Deal, then it is progress. However, it is another underscoring of the DUP’s flip flopping and unreliability on the crucial sovereignty issues at the heart of the Union-dismantling Protocol.

“If the DUP had thrown its full weight behind ‘mutual enforcement’, instead of embracing the Windsor Framework through the Donaldson Deal, then the fight against the sea border and EU law would have been easier.

“Now the electorate must decide who they trust on these crucial constitutional issues. The response to my canvass causes me to believe the DUP has rightly lost the trust of many.”

Loyalist anti-protocol campaigner Jamie Bryson says that the DUP won’t be taken seriously with their new policy position. He told the News Letter: “We were mocked and derided. Donaldson stood in the Commons, cheered on by Julian Smith, Heaton Harris and Baker mocking and deriding us. Gavin Robinson spoke of our ‘missives’ and how misguided we were”.

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He said: “We told them all long this was deranged stuff which as constitutionally absurd, but no, we were ‘dead end unionists’. In fact it is our political, legal and ultimately constitutional analysis which has prevailed. We were right, they were wrong and notwithstanding that I welcome them once again entering our territory, they have zero credibility left”.

Related topics:DUPJamie BrysonJim AllisterIrish SeaProtocol

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