Reform UK's Ben Habib says the DUP are putting party before country

​The DUP interim leader Gavin Robinson has accused his opponents of being focused on issues of division – and said they “have exploited genuine and legitimate concerns” about the Irish Sea border.

Responding to DUP criticism of his vote in the European Parliament for the UK-EU Brexit deal, Mr Habib – Reform’s deputy leader – said: “In advance of the vote, I had declared that if Johnson did not make true his manifesto promises on Brexit, including crucially that ‘the country would leave the EU as one UK’ I would be back. And back I was with virtually immediate effect. Throughout 2020 I campaigned against the form of his ‘Brexit’ and the Protocol. At that time the DUP was singing its praises”.

The Reform UK deputy leader said it was his idea to legally challenge the Protocol – which he worked on closely with Baroness Hoey and Jim Allister – and underwrote the funding for, and thanked the public for their financial and moral support.

He said the DUP are “panicking” and claimed they “think they are entitled to command the unionist vote even though they are the ones implementing the border. They are more interested in the promotion of their party than they are the national interest.

“The DUP may once have been the political guardians of unionism in NI . No longer. The privilege and burden of that mantle is now with the TUV. Reform UK will stand shoulder to shoulder with them”.