Plea to PM Truss: Time to sort out NI Protocol

But TUV chief Jim Allister warned that Ms Truss faced a key challenge as she enters 10 Downing Street – “is she PM for the whole of the United Kingdom?”

Mr Allister called on her to “take back sovereignty” over the entire UK by dumping the Union-threatening NI Protocol.

Liz Truss defeated her rival Rishi Sunak by gaining 81,326 votes to his 60,399 amongst Conservative Party members.

In her acceptance speech inside the Queen Elisabeth II conference centre in London, Ms Truss did not mention Northern Ireland, the Protocol or the integrity and unity of the UK.

“The challenge to the Prime Minister is this – is she the Prime Minister of the UK, a sovereign, independent state who makes its own laws in all parts and governs its own people, or is she prepared to tolerate and come to terms with the appalling situation whereby many of our laws are not made in London or in Belfast but in a foreign jurisdiction over which we have no control?” Mr Allister asked. He joined with DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and head of the UUP Doug Beattie in demanding that Prime Minister Truss removes the Protocol.