Baroness Hoey was invited onto GB News's Free Speech Nation podcast to discuss mounting tensions in Northern Ireland over the Brexit protocol. Loyalist groups from the protestant communities of Northern Ireland have grown increasingly hostile at what they argue is a trade border in the Irish Sea between NI and the rest of Great Britain. Ms Hoey insisted the row is an attempt by the EU to "punish" the UK for leaving the bloc.

       "The protocol will have to go one way or the other," Ms Hoey told GB News.

       "I am hopeful that everyone will see sense,

       "People in this country...in Great Britain who were Leavers will understand this is much more than about Northern Ireland.

       "This is about actually the EU wanting to punish us still for leaving their little club."

       Asked whether there was the possibility of a return to kind of violence seen during the dark days of the Troubles, Ms Hoey replied: "All of us are urging that not to happen."

       It comes as Katy Howard a sociologist at Queen's University Belfast warned Northern Irland's peaceful protests could "escalate."

       Ms Howard told DW News: "There are some people who think that violence in various forms expresses how serious you are.

       "I know that the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland do not want to see anything like that.

       "But it doesn't take too many people to create a situation in which peaceful protest can escalate into something violent."

       Meanwhile, a Loyalist campaigner opposed to the Irish sea border warned that the use of violence could not be ruled out during an interview with the German TV network.

       Sometimes violence is the thing that you have to do."

       "I'm not saying that we have to do it, I am not saying that we will have to do it.

       "I am just saying to ask me to take it off the table, ask me to categorically rule it out especially when our political opponents have made it very clear they are not going to take it off the table.

       "It is an unreasonable request."

       In a statement, Brexit minister Lord David Frost said: "Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom and its consumers should be able to enjoy products they have bought from Great Britain for years.

       "This is a very clear sign that the Protocol has to be operated in a pragmatic and proportionate way."