Enough is enough: Allister demands end to Sea Border ‘obstruction’ as EU calls for stricter enforcement

Pictured: Jim Allister KC MP, the leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV)

In a robust rebuke to recent European Union demands, Jim Allister KC MP, the leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), has condemned calls for tighter enforcement of the Irish Sea Border, describing them as audacious and humiliating for the United Kingdom.

His comments come in response to a Financial Times report published on 8 October 2025, which revealed Brussels’ insistence that the UK must properly implement checks on goods entering Northern Ireland before engaging in detailed talks on a veterinary or sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement for the entire UK.

The FT article highlighted the EU’s warning that the UK needs to fulfil its commitments under the existing Windsor Framework, which governs post-Brexit trade arrangements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

According to the report, Brussels views improved border enforcement as a prerequisite for advancing negotiations on a broader SPS deal that could potentially reduce checks on goods moving across the Irish Sea.

Allister, a staunch critic of the current arrangements, expressed disbelief at the EU’s position.

“It beggars belief that the European Union, which has had the audacity to disrespect the territorial integrity of the UK and assume the right to divide our country into two through the imposition of a customs and international SPS border, should now grumble because they say that our spineless and obsequious Government is failing to dot all its ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s as they affect our humiliation,” he said.

He emphasised the ongoing hardships faced by Northern Ireland’s residents and businesses under the existing border regime.

“The people of Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland businesses have suffered long enough,” Allister stated.

“No goods can move from Great Britain to Northern Ireland without having to negotiate the obstruction of an international border that should not be there. To do so they require, at minimum, an export number, some customs paperwork and in the case of SPS goods, some international SPS paperwork, with some checks at the nearly £190+ million Border Control Posts paid for by the British tax-payer to cut ourselves in half. And that’s just the Green Lane!”

Rather than advocating for stricter enforcement, which he argues would exacerbate trade diversion in contravention of the Windsor Framework’s safeguards, Allister urged the UK Government to take decisive action.

“Rather than needing tighter enforcement, driving even further trade diversion in direct violation of the Windsor Framework’s own Safeguards, what we need is a government that has the boldness to stand up to the EU for the people of the United Kingdom and trigger Article 16,” he declared.

Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol allows either party to unilaterally suspend aspects of the agreement if it leads to serious economic, societal, or environmental difficulties.

Allister further questioned the trustworthiness of the EU, stating:

“An entity that wishes to affect our humiliation in order to know it can trust us, is not an entity that we can trust.”

He warned against extending the current disenfranchisement experienced in Northern Ireland—where residents have no say in over 300 areas of law related to food and animal health—to the rest of the UK through a nationwide SPS Agreement.

“Speaking for the part of the UK that has already been subject to the humiliation of disenfranchisement in relation our food and animal (SPS) laws, the solution is not for that humiliation to be extended to the rest of the United Kingdom through a demanding SPS Agreement,” Allister said.

He reminded that the British public voted for Brexit to regain sovereignty:

“The British people voted for Brexit because we want to be able to make our own laws not because we want to give up having any voice in the setting of any of our legislation.”

Outlining the potential consequences of conceding to EU demands, Allister cautioned:

“If the Government bows to the latest EU demand the ‘great prize’ will be that instead of being in a situation where the people of Northern Ireland have been disenfranchised in 300 areas of law, while the people of England, Wales and Scotland maintain a full citizenship, we will move to a place where the people of NI continue to be disenfranchised in 300 areas of law but are joined in this in some areas by the people of Great Britain. They will lose the right to stand for election to make much of the food and animal health legislation to which they are subject.”

He dismissed claims that an SPS Agreement would resolve issues with the Windsor Framework, asserting:

“And, when they say the SPS Agreement will help deal with challenges around the Windsor Framework, don’t be fooled. Even with a UK wide EU SPS Agreement, the Irish Sea Border will remain in place. Northern Ireland will still be subject to the EU customs Code which will cut our country into two and still declare that the rest of the UK is a third or foreign country in relation to Northern Ireland.”

Labelling such an agreement a “lose-lose” proposition that disrespects the Brexit vote, Allister criticised the current Government’s approach, linking it to broader perceived weaknesses:

“It is the kind of thing loved by our current Government whose loss of belief in our country and attendant lack of self-respect, has not surprisingly translated into wider dysfunction: denying the Chagossians, self-determination, giving their island to Mauritius, bending over backwards to accommodate China, recognised to constitute a threat to national security, the biggest embassy in London etc etc.”

As an alternative, Allister advocated for Mutual Enforcement, a mechanism he claims the EU initially developed but later abandoned.

“What we need is a solution that delivers Brexit to the whole United Kingdom while avoiding a hard border across the island of Ireland, the solution that the EU itself developed in the first place and then decided against when they thought they could get away with the Irish Sea border, Mutual Enforcement,” he said.

“This is provided for by my EU Withdrawal (Alternative Arrangements) Bill which any Government that believed in Britain could adopt at any time.”

Allister’s intervention underscores ongoing tensions in UK-EU relations post-Brexit, particularly concerning Northern Ireland’s unique position.

With the Irish Sea Border continuing to spark debate, his call for bolder Government action may resonate with unionist communities and Brexit supporters across the UK. As negotiations potentially loom, the response from Downing Street and Brussels will be closely watched.