Good Friday Agreement 2023 unionist poll results 'not at all a surprise' thanks to Northern Ireland Protocol, says TUV leader Jim Allister

TUV leader Jim Allister has said he is "not at all surprised" by poll results showing a majority of unionists now opposed to the Good Friday Agreement.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Jan 2023, 16:09 BST
Updated 29th Jan 2023, 16:10 BST
Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 29th November 2021 TUV leader Jim Allister arrives at the High Court in Belfast where he and other Unionist leaders are taking a legal challenge against the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Northern Ireland Protocol is a trade barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK which came into place at the start of the year when BREXIT started. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEyePress Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 29th November 2021 TUV leader Jim Allister arrives at the High Court in Belfast where he and other Unionist leaders are taking a legal challenge against the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Northern Ireland Protocol is a trade barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK which came into place at the start of the year when BREXIT started. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye
Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 29th November 2021 TUV leader Jim Allister arrives at the High Court in Belfast where he and other Unionist leaders are taking a legal challenge against the Northern Ireland Protocol. The Northern Ireland Protocol is a trade barrier between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK which came into place at the start of the year when BREXIT started. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye

The North Antrim MLA suggested those who had opposed the Belfast Agreement from the outset had been vindicated by recent events, particularly the "constitutional change" that followed Brexit.

He was speaking to the News Letter after a poll by Lucid Talk, the results of which were first published by the Belfast Telegraph, showed that while the Agreement still enjoys overwhelming support overall 54% of unionist voters would not vote in favour in a hypothetical 2023 referendum.

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Just 35% of unionist voters told the polling company they would vote yes in such a referendum.

Asked for his thoughts on the results, Mr Allister pointed to the post-Brexit trading arrangement known as the Northern Ireland Protocol that critics say divides the region from the rest of the UK due to customs rules.

"I'm not at all surprised by the results," the TUV boss said. "I think that the Belfast Agreement is a further casualty of the Protocol because the Protocol wrought constitutional change. You know, it put us under a foreign legislature making some of our laws, subjecting us to a foreign single market and customs code - all of which was without consent. And of course the Belfast Agreement trumpeted the fact that there would be no constitutional change without consent, so the fact that it's demonstrably not worth the paper it's written on in that regard I think has caused many unionists to realise that any support for it was wholly misplaced."

Asked if the results vindicated the TUV's position, Mr Allister said: "Of course they do. They first of all underscore that unionists like myself were always opposed to the Belfast Agreement identified it not as a settlement but as a process that had to be constantly fed with concessions, particularly in respect of keeping the terrorists happy. And we saw all that. The big selling point for unionism was 'you're safe, you're secure, there never can be any change without consent', and that's now shown to be a fraud and a conceit - there's been constitutional change with the Protocol and the Belfast Agreement was no defence against it."

Related topics:Jim AllisterProtocolNorthern IrelandBrexit