‘No sign loyalists plan return to violence’ over NI Protocol

BELFAST: The withdrawal of loyalist paramilitary support for Northern Ireland’s historic peace agreement does not signal an intent to return to violence, a DUP MP has insisted.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, whose party leadership recently met an umbrella group representing the outlawed paramilitary groups, said there was no evidence the groups planned to resist the contentious Northern Ireland Protocol by violent means.

His comments come after the Loyalist Communities Council (LCC) umbrella group wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson telling him the main loyalist paramilitary groups were withdrawing support for the Good Friday/Belfast agreement.

The paramilitaries said they were temporarily withdrawing their backing of the Belfast/Good Friday accord amid mounting concerns about the arrangements governing Irish Sea trade post-Brexit. The LCC leadership stressed that unionist opposition to the protocol should remain “peaceful and democratic”.

However, the letter warned that the protocol undermines the “basis on which the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) agreed their 1994 ceasefire and subsequent support for the Belfast Agreement”.

Sir Jeffrey said the letter to Johnson was unequivocal that opposition to the protocol had to remain peaceful. He told BBC Radio Ulster that his party colleagues came away from their meeting with the LCC with “no sense that loyalist paramilitaries were going to revert to violence in opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol”. “I think that is reflected in this statement,” he added.

“Of course we are very clear that choosing the path of violence is not the way to go in any circumstances.” The 1998 agreement that loyalist paramilitaries endorsed 23 years ago ended decades of violence and established devolved powersharing at Stormont.

UK ministers are facing a backlash from unionists who fear the post-Brexit protocol threatens Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market. The DUP and other unionist parties are pushing for the protocol to be ditched, claiming it has driven an economic wedge between the region and Great Britain, which undermines the union.

In the letter, which was first reported by the Irish News, the paramilitary groups said their stance in respect of the Belfast Agreement would continue until the protocol was amended to ensure “unfettered access for goods, services, and citizens throughout the United Kingdom”.

It added: “If you or the EU is not prepared to honour the entirety of the agreement then you will be responsible for the permanent destruction of the agreement.”

The development came as the UK Government took unilateral action on Wednesday to extend a grace period that has been limiting the volume of red tape associated with moving agri-food goods from GB into Northern Ireland.

The EU criticised the government move to extend the exemption period, which was due to run out at the end of the month, until October, claiming it risked breaching the terms of the protocol.

The European Commission is considering legal action against the UK. On Thursday, Irish Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney said the EU is negotiating with a partner it “simply cannot trust”. Coveney described the UK’s government’s unilateral decision as “very frustrating”.

Goods arriving into Northern Ireland from GB have been subjected to added processes and checks since the Brexit transition period ended on December 31.