Ian Paisley calls on government to 'stop dillydallying and invoke Article 16 now'

The DUP's Ian Paisley has accused Brussels of "destroying" Northern Ireland by insisting on the enforcement of the Protocol.

The North Antrim MP urged the Government to invoke Article 16 to put businesses "out of the misery."

He told MPs in Westminster on Thursday: "We now appear to have this Joan of Arc stand-off of the opposition, calling the protocol as if it is something precious when it is destroying businesses, it is costing businesses in Northern Ireland £850 million.

"That is what is catastrophic: the friction of trade within the United Kingdom.”

During an urgent question on the Northern Ireland protocol in Westminster he insisted Brussels "destroyed this part of the United Kingdom by insisting on the enforcement of a protocol in a disgraceful manner."

Paisley called on the Government to "Invoke Article 16 and invoke it now, and stop dillydallying on this issue. Put business out of the misery in Northern Ireland."

Responding to DUP MP Ian Paisley, Michael Ellis said: "He is also right to say on the business front that at least 200 companies in Great Britain are no longer servicing the Northern Ireland market, so the point he makes is perfectly valuable. A significant number of medicines, for example, are also still at risk of discontinuation.

"I will say this: we saw in one of the national newspapers recently that even the supply of trees for the Queen's forthcoming Platinum Jubilee cannot apparently be supplied in Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

"There are problems that have frankly been shredded by the way this protocol is working."

Article 16 is a "legitimate part" of the Northern Ireland Protocol's provisions, a minister has said, after a Liberal Democrat MP called for it to be ruled out before Christmas.

Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael claimed an update should already have been given to the House insisting that triggering article 16 this side of Christmas would be ‘catastrophic’. 

He lambasted the government, telling MPs that Article 16 is not a “get-out-of-jail-free card for the Government when they do not like the deal that they have done.”

"To invoke it in the way in which Government ministers speak would be seen as an act of bad faith on the part of the UK Government, he added."

He said "pragmatic solutions" are needed, "not more posturing", adding "the problems of which the Government now complain are all one of their own making".

Shadow Northern Ireland minister Alex Davies-Jones told the House of Commons that the "last thing this country needs is a damaging trade dispute" with the EU.

She said: "Trust is hard won and easy to lose. I say to the minister, in sincere hope he listens, this is not the context in which any responsible Government would force another high-stake, divisive stand-off. "With the cost-of-living crisis and growing instability, the last thing this country needs is a damaging trade dispute with our nearest trading partners."