'He wants us to roll over in face of constitutional obscenity': TUV reacts to unionist peer Lord Bew call for Windsor Framework to be accepted 'despite imperfections'

Mr Allister was reacting to comments Lord Bew made on the Sunday Politics show, in which the former advisor to David Trimble said that the best strategic option unionism has is to re-enter government and voice concerns about the framework from there.

Lord Bew had told BBC host Mark Carruthers that the issue really came down to whether unionism had “better leverage… by being inside or outside”.

He said: “My argument is it’s better – despite the inevitable imperfections, because it reflects a diplomatic defeat of Britain in 2017 following Theresa May’s election defeat, and it’s never really been reversed with the terms of the settlement – it’s far better to be inside, than outside.”

It echoed views he had voiced days earlier in the News Letter in a joint piece with author and fellow peer Lord Godson.

In that piece, they had said: “The argument that unionists cannot administer a system that they fundamentally disagree with is a principle that Sinn Fein have no truck with for themselves.

"Republicans have committed to administer the continuation of the British state in Northern Ireland – on the basis that it is the best way to achieve their ultimate objective.

"Administering the Windsor Framework is the best way to achieve unionism’s ultimate objective too.”

In response to Lord Bew’s comments today to the BBC, Mr Allister said: “Lord Bew’s soft interview with Mark Carruthers on Sunday Politics amounted to an exhortation to unionism to roll over on the Protocol and operate it, while ignoring its seismic constitutional change and transitioning of NI into an economic all-Ireland.

“To make his case he had to grossly downplay the constitutional realities of the Protocol...

“The constitutional reality is that by reason of being under the EU’s Customs Code Northern Ireland is regarded as EU territory and GB as a foreign country!

"Yet, Lord Bew wants Unionism to accept and implement that constitutional obscenity and, at the same time, accept that much of our economy and trade should be governed by the same laws as the Republic of Ireland, namely those of the EU Single Market – and, Unionists should administer that in Stormont.”