Anti-Protocol posters calling for an end to the Irish Sea Border and warning that "nothing less will do" have been erected by the UVF in parts of Northern Ireland.
The posters have been erected by loyalists in Mid-Ulster and Co Down, warning of a return to violence on the streets if the imminent deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol doesn’t scrap the Irish Sea border.
The call to "restore our place in the United Kingdom" comes as speculation mounts that a deal may be announced in the coming days. Talks between the UK and EU to fix issues with the post-Brexit trading arrangements have been ongoing for some time.
READ MORE: UK on 'cusp' of NI Protocol deal, says Deputy Prime Minister
The DUP has pressed the UK Government to act on unionist concerns around the impact of the protocol on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and its impact on the union. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has demanded action on the protocol before his party re-enters devolved government at Stormont.
It's understood that the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is "on the cusp" of securing new Brexit terms with the European Union. Mr Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will meet in the UK on Monday to discuss the "range of complex challenges around" the Northern Ireland Protocol, No 10 said on Sunday afternoon.
Mr Sunak said on Saturday that his administration was "giving it everything we've got" to finalise a deal to fix issues with the protocol, a Brexit treaty negotiated by former prime minister Boris Johnson.
The protocol, signed by Mr Johnson in 2020, was designed to prevent a hard border with Ireland after Brexit by effectively keeping Northern Ireland in the EU's single market.
But the trade barriers created by the treaty has created Unionist tension, with Mr Sunak admitting that it had "unbalanced" the Good Friday Agreement that helped end the Troubles bloodshed in Northern Ireland.
The Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab has put Westminster on stand-by for a Northern Ireland Protocol deal to be announced after saying he expected a fresh pact to be signed off in "days, not weeks".
Mr Raab, said there had been a "paradigm shift" in the approach from Brussels, hinting that talks had wielded changes on customs checks as well as dealing with Unionists' concerns around Northern Ireland not having a say in EU rules that impact on the region.
The Cabinet minister told the BBC: "If we can get this over the line - we're on the cusp, we've made great progress, we're not there yet - this would be a really important deal."
Over the weekend, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar also indicated that negotiations over the protocol are "inching towards conclusion".
The DUP has issued seven tests that Mr Sunak's new pact will have to meet in order to win its backing, including addressing what the party calls the "democratic deficit" of Northern Ireland being subject to EU rules while not having a say on them.
Several reports have said there will be red and green lanes for customs, allowing trusted traders to send goods from Great Britain into Northern Ireland without checks, while goods destined for Ireland and the EU's single market will go through the red lane.
DUP MP Sammy Wilson told GB News it was a "red line" for his party that "no EU law" should continue to apply in Northern Ireland.
"Not only are we given those laws and have imposed those laws on us at present, but they're imposed without any say either by British ministers or by politicians in Northern Ireland," he said.
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