General Election: Wilson and Allister in election spat over parties’ records on Irish Sea border

His comments come in response to a call by Jim Allister and his new recruit Dan Boucher – a former DUP policy director – for voters to ‘hold the DUP to account’ at the general election.

The TUV candidates said that because unionism was represented in the House of Commons by just the DUP when the Irish Sea Border came into effect – “that party’s stewardship requires scrutiny in this election”.

They accused the DUP of squandering numerous opportunities, “whether by design or incompetence”.

The opportunities missed, according to the TUV men, are not arguing for Mutual Enforcement which they say would have meant no sea border, accepting the Windsor Framework through the Safeguarding the Union deal – and giving up the Stormont leverage the party held through its Stormont boycott “for nothing of substance”.

East Antrim candidate Sammy Wilson rejected the TUV criticisms – saying that is all the party has to offer.

“TUV won’t win any seats but they can change NI representation by helping elect more Alliance and Sinn Fein MPs.

“The electorate will see beyond the TUV bitterness. Jim and Dan should be careful their hatred of the DUP doesn’t blind them to what’s best for Northern Ireland.

“TUV always see problems but doesn’t provide solutions. It exists to attack the DUP and has done for almost 20 years, yet Jim Allister’s greatest achievement has been to split the unionist vote and help elect more non-unionists to the Assembly.

“The Conservative Prime Minister foisted the NI Protocol on Northern Ireland and the DUP voted against it consistently meanwhile Jim and Dan are in a partnership with Ben Habib- a man who voted for the Protocol.

“There’s not much principal or consistency in that”.

Mr Wilson this week welcomed an endorsement from the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who as Ben Habib’s leader in the European Parliament also backed the Protocol.

The DUP candidate also said: “We endorsed Mutual Enforcement as a solution several years ago but the Government and the EU rejected it.

“Unlike the TUV we have a strategy to remove barriers between us and the rest of the UK.

“The TUV’s sole plan is to ‘dispose of the DUP’ by causing division within unionism even if that means electing Sinn Fein and Alliance MPs instead of DUP MPs”.

He pointed to a 2019 statement from the TUV which said “the luxury of expressing a preference within the Unionist family will not be available to all, particularly in marginal seats” and said “the Union trumps everything”.

Mr Wilson said “If unionist seats are gifted to non-unionists because of the TUV standing, then Jim Allister will be the toast at Alliance and Sinn Fein celebrations”.

Jim Allister and Dan Boucher said: “The DUP’s ‘Safeguarding the Union’ represented no progress on the Windsor Framework whatsoever, just a demeaning attempt by the UK Government and DUP to trick the people of Northern Ireland. Yet, the former and current DUP leaders did their utmost to hoodwink the public with false claims that the Irish Sea border was gone.

“The people of Northern Ireland are not fools and to not deserve to be represented in Parliament by those prepared to take them for fools. It is time for change.

“Unionism requires different, competent leadership in the House of Common in the next session”.