Lord Dodds said,
It is now abundantly clear beyond all doubt that the Protocol talks are being dragged out with little prospect of an outcome which meets the bar set by the Government’s Command Paper and which we reminded them of in July with our tests.
This has always been the EU plan but it appears that the U.K. Government is now falling into line with this unacceptable timeline. This cannot be allowed to go on.
It is also clear that the UK Government is retreating from its commitment to trigger Article 16 despite, as the Prime Minister himself said, the conditions for doing so having been met long ago.
The UK Government is moving away from its own Command Paper on medicines where it rightly sought their removal completely from EU control.
Every day that passes with the Protocol in place is another day which sees Northern Ireland and Great Britain move further apart. This is unsustainable.
If the UK Government can’t or won’t act, then unionism will and soon.”