EU legal action driven by what suits Brussels rather than what's best for NI

He called on those who have defended the Northern Ireland Protocol to explain if they support the increased checks and bureaucracy that would be imposed if the grace periods were ended.

The DUP MP said,

"This action will victimise hard-pressed households in Northern Ireland. The legal challenge is not against the Government’s draft bill rather it is against grace periods which enable the supply of frozen food which struggling families really depend on.

To keep frozen food on our supermarket shelves the UK rightly took unilateral action. This legal challenge is the equivalent of the EU triggering Article 16 to stop vaccines getting into Northern Ireland. It is an outrageous decision driving by selfish Brussels’ interests rather than what is best for the people who live in Northern Ireland.

Rather than take vindictive legal actions, the European Union would be better to recognise that the Protocol is rejected by every unionist MLA and is undermining everything the Belfast Agreement and its successors sought to achieve. Progress is made in Northern Ireland by building consensus not by foisting a flawed protocol on people who don’t want it.

If the Alliance Party, SDLP and Sinn Fein defend this legal action then they should give a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer as to whether they want the grace periods to end.”