Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister says he will hold DUP leader Arlene Foster to account to ensure Northern Ireland's Brexit is as "irreversible as the rest of the nation".

Speaking at the TUV annual conference in Cookstown on Saturday, the North Antrim MLA said there must be no special status for Northern Ireland when the UK leaves the EU.

“We joined as one nation, we leave as one nation,” he said. He told over 100 delegates that “2016 will go down in history as the year when the people rose up to retake control of their destiny”.

He said: “1916 was our nation’s year of sacrifice; 2016 was our year of liberation from the shackles and torments of the EU.

‘True patriots’

“An uprising of true patriots; a bloodless revolution that will set our nation on course to be great again: Spending our own money, deciding our own laws, being subject to our own courts and making trade deals that suit us.”

Mr Allister, who is a QC and a former MEP, believes there must be “no backsliding on Brexit” and that neither “Remoaners” nor the courts should be allowed to “thwart the democratic will of the people of this great kingdom”.

“There can and must be no status for Northern Ireland which dilutes our leaving,” he said.

The TUV has 11 councillors and Mr Allister is its sole MLA. He was disappointed the party did not get another MLA elected in May and says he hopes to “double or better” the number of councillors in the future.

While TUV is described by opponents as a “one man band”, Mr Allister has proven to be a thorn in the side of the DUP-Sinn Féin coalition government headed by First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, or “Marlene” as he has nicknamed them.

A fierce critic of mandatory coalition, Mr Allister pledged to “continue to shine the spotlight of exposure into the dark corners of Stormont” and welcomed further co-operation between the UUP and SDLP in poviding opposition to the governing parties.