Mr Campbell said,
“After a bad election Doug Beattie now seems to want to keep on digging. There has been more potential progress in resolving the protocol problem in the two weeks since the Unionist people voted the way they did, than in the two years since it was implemented. Rather than help resolve matters at the point where we are hopefully beginning to see some realism, he risks creating further problems.
Earlier this week we met the NIO and I pointed out that it would not be in the interests of the people of Northern Ireland if the Government were to undertake actions that pushed Unionism further away. Doug Beattie's suggestion would do exactly that.
If the Government are finally contemplating moving in a direction that would assist not just Unionism, but wider society as well why would he try and throw a massive 'dead cat' on the table to try and deflect attention from what our Government are going to produce, analyse it to see if it offers the beginnings of a resolution?
Doug’s suggestion whether planned or unplanned was foolish and naïve.”