Equal citizenship is non-negotiable - Allister
North Antrim MP lays down the law at Oxford University
NORTH Antrim MP Jim Allister has addressed Oxford University - and he pulled no punches.
The TUV leader Jim told the Oxford Reform Society that unless there was a centre right government after the next election the Labour Party would have Brexit reversed ‘in all but name’.
“This is the undisguised purpose of Labour’s Reset,” he said.
“It will make the whole UK, on the undemocratic template of what has been imposed on Northern Ireland, a slavish rule-taker of EU laws we don’t make and can’t change.
“When this has been rolled out for every section of our economy, then the consummation of the strategy will be to formally rejoin.
“Meanwhile, we will pay in billions for the privilege of being ruled as an EU colony, while all the time disrespecting the biggest democratic vote in our history.”
Explaining how NI had been treated, the TUV leader said the EU had made good on its threat that Northern Ireland would be the price of Brexit.
“We were left behind under Brussels’ Customs Code and Single Market rule book,” said Mr Allister.
“Now, Labour wants to extend the same disenfranchisement to the whole UK by making all parts subject to foreign rule.
“Yes, we in NI have been woefully treated by a Tory government that left us captive in the EU, but as a UK Unionist I don’t believe the answer to NI’s disenfranchisement is to inflict the same on England, Scotland and Wales.
“Instead, my vision is to complete Brexit for us all and that means a Reform Government would have to have the courage and the determination to start by ripping up the Windsor Framework and reassert UK sovereignty over all of our four nations.
“Equal citizenship is the key to being a United Kingdom and such cannot exist so long as NI is within a customs code that decrees GB a foreign country and subjects my constituents, in 300 areas of law, to the identical foreign laws as the Republic of Ireland.
“So, if there is a Reform Government, then this is the basis upon which it would earn and have my full support.”