Mr Buckley’s comments come after EU inspectors have demanded GB passengers entering Northern Ireland be stopped and their personal luggage searched, in furtherance of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Upper Bann MLA said.
“Those parties in Northern Ireland who travelled to Dublin to cheerlead for the “rigorous implementation” of the Northern Ireland Protocol have serious questions to answer. They can’t wash their hands of their statements. Statements which disregarded the concerns of every single unionist party.
A recent EU report has demanded that GB passengers entering Northern Ireland be stopped and their personal luggage searched, in furtherance of the Northern Ireland Protocol. The obvious question on many people’s mind will be, is this what those parties meant when they penned a joint statement calling for the Protocol’s rigorous implementation?
Their slavish devotion to the EU closed their eyes to the concern of unionists. Not a single unionist MLA or Party supported the Protocol but the “rigorous implementers” pressed ahead. Progress can only be made in NI when the process commands the support of unionists and nationalists.”