Donaldson declares ‘this is not Brexit!’ as he tries to woo Tories into enlisting in anti-Protocol battle

He has produced a new document highlighting the impact of the Protocol on Northern Ireland and the wider United Kingdom.

It re-states the party’s position that the sea border “must go”, and breaks down the reasons into seven short bulletpoints.

They are, as follows:

1) This government pledged to protect and strengthen the UK internal market as part of New Decade New Approach;

2) It threatens the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom;

3) It is costing the Northern Ireland economy £2.5m every day;

4) No elected unionist representative in Northern Ireland supports the Protocol;

5) It is entirely undemocratic;

6) This is not Brexit;

7) A good deal for the EU, a bad deal for the UK.

The party says it was distributed amongst Conservative MPs earlier this week.

Today he said: “The Protocol was sold on the basis of promoting peace and stability yet there is no cross-community support and it undermines a key foundation that political progress was built upon.

“The Assembly and Executive were restored on the basis of a clear promise that Northern Ireland’s place within the UK internal market would be restored. Whilst trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland remain that promise has not been fulfilled and devolution is undermined.

“No-one who supported leaving the European Union did so on the basis of it driving a wedge between constituent parts of the UK.

“Whilst the Irish Sea border exists, Brexit has not been delivered.”

Earlier in the week, Edwin Poots had warned that Northern Ireland is currently only seeing about 10% of the number of checks on good from GB the EU ultimately wants to impose.

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