Following a meeting with the Secretary of State this morning in Hillsborough Castle TUV leader Jim Allister said:

“We had a useful exchange as I pressed strongly on the Secretary of State her obligation to give a lead on issues, because left to itself Stormont would never self-regulate itself into a workable and democratic institution. I expressed my disappointment that her Northern Ireland Bill which will soon be debated at Westminster does nothing to provide for an opposition at Stormont and reminded her that voters in Northern Ireland should have the same rights as electors in other parts of the United Kingdom – the right to vote a party out of government and the right to have an opposition. After all, we live in Northern Ireland, not North Korea!

“I also pressed her on the issue of flags. As Secretary of State she has the power to amend the Flags Order, the legislation which specifies which days are “designated days”. It is ridiculous that even when it comes to “designated days” these are less than in the rest of the United Kingdom. Also other obvious Northern Ireland days, like 1st July and 28th September, should be included.

“We also discussed the fact that Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK not to have an Armed Forces advocate and I highlighted that this was because of the Sinn Fein veto over everything which comes before the Executive.”

Statement by Jim Allister MLA:-

“Under S 11 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 the Attorney General has the power to refer any Bill passed by the Assembly to the Supreme Court to test the competence of the Bill.

“When the SPAD Bill was in its initial form the Attorney General raised concerns as to an aspect of its compatibility with Art 7 of the ECHR. I strove to allay these concerns by relevant amendments at the Consideration Stage. Yet, some continued to express concerns about the legality of portions of the Bill. I believed those concerns to be ill-founded, but in view of their repetition I invited the Attorney General to give us the benefit of his opinion on the Bill in its final form.

“Yesterday I received his reply and forwarded it to relevant MLAs. It will be observed that the Attorney General has emphatically made it clear that in view of the amendments made his concerns no longer exist.

“I welcome this timely clarification and trust it will reassure others.”