Northern Ireland Protocol: Government postpones publication of reforming legislation while UUP leader Doug Beattie warns of pending unrest

As unionists waited again for a bill which enables the Cabinet to override the protocol, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson also described the attitude of Taoiseach Micheal Martin to any such move as “deeply distressing.”

Mr Martin said any such unilateral British changes to the Protocol would mark a “low point” in London-Dublin relations.

It emerged last night that the bill, which will eventually be led through Parliament by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, and will allow for changes to the checking of goods coming from Great Britain into Northern Ireland as well as altering the power of the European Court of Justice to rule over trade and other disputes in the Province, was going to be delayed until next week.

Earlier yesterday both unionist leaders were demanding urgent action for changes to the protocol at a meeting in Westminster.

Sir Jeffrey told a committee from the House of Lords that the Irish government was “tone deaf” to unionist concerns over the protocol.

Speaking to peers, the DUP leader said the protocol made him feel like a “second-class citizen in my own country” and that the post-Brexit trade deal had undermined the spirit and constitutional reality of the Belfast Agreement.

On the possible restoration of devolved institutions at Stormont, Sir Jeffrey used the meeting to criticise the Irish government’s position on the protocol.

He said: “If the Irish government want to see the institutions restored, they are going to have to listen to unionist concerns.

“They don’t answer questions as they don’t listen to our concerns.”

Mr Beattie, meanwhile, informed the same committee that “societal division” was getting worse in the Province and that the government had to act soon to address the unionist community’s concerns about the protocol.

“It doesn’t take much to go from a brick to a stone, and from a stone to a petrol bomb, and from a petrol bomb to a bullet, and from a bullet to a coffin. It doesn’t take long in Northern Ireland,” he said in his address to the Lords sub-committee on the protocol yesterday.

Replying to a question from UUP peer Lord Empey, Mr Beattie said: “I am not trying to scare anybody to say that it is going to happen. All I’m saying is that frustrations could boil over, if we don’t do something in regards to fixing the protocol.”

On community relations, the UUP leader told peers: “Communities have been coming together but they are slowly being driven apart. There is a small wedge being pushed between them, which is expanding each time because of the protocol. There is a large swathe of unionism where the protocol is deeply damaging for them and they feel their identity is under threat.”

He said he hoped that the publication of the government’s legislation might even drive both the UK and EU back to the negotiating table.

Mr Beattie also suggested that Stormont politicians be given the power to scrutinise EU rules governing Northern Ireland with even a statutory committee at the Assembly.

“They start looking at this and seeing how these EU directives that are to affect Northern Ireland affect us and how we can mitigate that effect if there is a negative effect,” he said.

However, the UUP leader rejected the idea of a direct link between Stormont ministers and Brussels on how to change these EU rules.

“I think it would be very difficult for Northern Irish ministers, as part of the United Kingdom, to have a direct link to Brussels,” he said. “I just think that if we do that there is a chance we would have that in all the devolved nations and it could become quite chaotic.”

He accepted that some businesses in the Province are benefiting from the protocol but added that “we can’t let those who are suffering because of it go to the wall”.

On UK-EU relations, Mr Beattie acknowledged that the expected protocol legislation would make things worse between London and Brussels.

“Because of the legislation that is coming forward, things are likely to get worse before they get better, but we believe they will get better if we keep engaging.”