Jim Allister rails at Gavin Robinson over his criticism of anti-protocol ‘interlopers’

The TUV leader launched the attack on the East Belfast MP at a rally in Dromore, Co Down, on Friday night.

He shared the stage with Brexiteers Ben Habib, Ann Widdecombe and Kate Hoey.

The event came in the wake of TUV announcing a formal partnership with Richard Tice’s right-wing Reform UK party ahead of the general election.

Speaking to the BBC this month, Mr Robinson said “some of the people that are travelling over... to tell us what our view on the protocol should be, voted for it”.

“It’s amazing. They must genuinely think that unionists in Ulster are buttoned up the back,” he added.

“Because these are individuals, all of whom either actively voted for the protocol in the case of Ben Habib, in the case of Ann Widdecombe... actively voted for the protocol in the wider Withdrawal Agreement in the European Parliament, or others who seemed to abandon the field whenever there were significant votes taking place in Westminster in September and October of 2019.

“Whenever Boris Johnson was seeking parliamentary support for his deal, the DUP voted against, my colleagues and I voted against.

“When we have people who are coming here, sowing discord and criticising people like me who voted against the protocol when they voted for it... I think the larger share of people within the unionist community can scratch their head and say: ‘Something doesn’t feel quite right about that’.”

Mr Allister told the rally: “Ladies and gentlemen, Gavin Robinson disparagingly thinks you shouldn’t be here, and he certainly thinks anyone from England shouldn’t be here. Delighted to share a platform with my fellow countrymen and women.

“Ben Habib and Ann Widdecombe are no interlopers, they are our compatriots and fellow UK citizens.

“How far the DUP in its Ulster nationalism has departed from the heart and essence of unionism is illustrated by Gavin Robinson’s crass comments, which even went so far as to vilify the integrity of Baroness Kate Hoey. You can’t get much lower than that.”

Mr Habib donated £30,000 to the DUP in 2022, something Mr Allister referenced.

He said: “To seek to deride Ben Habib, of all people, is beyond contempt.

“This is the man who stood up for the Union when others were nowhere to be seen, who funded, to the tune of tens of thousands, the legal challenge against the protocol, and who even wasted £30,000 on the DUP.

“Well, Gavin, if he’s such an ogre, do the decent thing and give him back his money.

“As for Mr Robinson’s boast of having voted against the protocol: it’s not where you start on the protocol, it’s where you finish that counts.

“And while Ben Habib, Ann Widdecombe and Kate Hoey continue to stand firm, it is Gavin and his party that have paid the Danegeld to become protocol implementers.

“And all that in circumstances where not one word of the Union-dismantling protocol has been changed, nor one syllable of EU law disapplied, and still not one check removed.”