Northern Ireland

Several hundred attend two anti protocol rallies

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson

Several hundred people have attended two anti-protocol rallies over the weekend.

At a rally in Bangor, Co Down, on Saturday DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said both the UK Government and the EU now recognised that the Northern Ireland Protocol needed to be changed.

Speaking ahead of the rally, he said: "Unionism stands united in opposition to the protocol. That must continue to be our focus.

"There are too many divisions. This election will be won and lost on transfers.

"I want every unionist to give the DUP their first preference but I want them to then continue and transfer to the other pro-union candidates."

The meeting was also addressed by TUV leader Jim Allister as well as Baroness Kate Hoey and former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib.

They also spoke at an anti-protocol rally held earlier in the day in Ballymena, Co Antrim.

Mr Allister told the Co Antrim rally that there can be no return of the Stormont power-sharing executive until the protocol is removed.

A number of loyal order bands marched through Ballymena before several hundred people gathered in the town centre to hear speeches.

Mr Allister said: "We must bring the mendacious prime minister who put this iniquitous protocol upon us to the point where he has to make a choice.

"And the leverage we have is to make the Prime Minister choose: do you want to save the protocol, or do you want to save Stormont?

"You cannot have both.

"And the reason I say you can't have both is very simple: the price of Stormont is to implement the protocol and it is a price no unionist can pay or ever should have paid."