Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie has condemned “mindless idiots” who placed one of his election posters with a noose around the neck outside an anti-Protocol rally.
The poster was removed from a bench in Lurgan on Friday evening by fellow unionist leaders Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Jim Allister.
Mr Beattie, who has refused to attend the rallies claiming that they are raising tensions, told the PA news agency he would “not be bullied, intimidated or distracted”.
Read more: Lurgan anti-Protocol rally told there is "unwavering support" for unified unionist opposition
A series of rallies have been taking place across Northern Ireland outlining unionist and loyalist opposition to the post-Brexit protocol which sees additional checks on goods arriving into Northern Ireland from Britain.
It is strongly opposed by unionists as a border in the Irish Sea.
Mr Beattie announced he would not attend the events after a security alert halted a peace-building event in North Belfast which Irish Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney had been addressing last month.
Since then, his constituency office in Portadown was attacked when the front window was smashed by a brick.
Reacting to Friday night’s events, Mr Beattie said: “It is a poster and some mindless idiots have put a noose around my neck on it - they are not reflective of the vast majority of people who were there.
“A poster can go in the bin, a window can be replaced. My concern for the people of Northern Ireland remains. Nothing has changed.”
Mr Beattie, an Army veteran who has been decorated with the Military Cross, claimed that he was branded a “traitor” at the event.
He said: “That is where my main disappointment is, in being called a Lundy and a traitor when I’m clearly not.
“I am a unionist who supports the union, who will do everything I possibly can for the people of that union.”
He added: “I will neither be bullied nor intimidated nor distracted from the path that I believe is the right path for the people of Northern Ireland, so nothing has changed whatsoever.
“I don’t blame the vast majority of people who were there.
“The people who did it are the ones to blame, they are the ones who have to answer the questions and we should not lay blame at the feet of others when it was mindless individuals who did it.
“It was taken down, it went in the bin, as far as I am concerned that is it.”
Sir Jeffrey, Mr Allister and loyalist Jamie Bryson addressed the event on Friday evening at Brownlow House.
Mr Allister said he removed the poster of Mr Beattie from view because he felt its presentation, whether intentional or inadvertent, was “entirely inappropriate”.
He said that if someone placed it to “convey malevolence”, that “they were idiots”.
Sir Jeffrey told the rally that his message to the event was one of unionists working together.
“We must stand united. We must stand as one in opposition to the protocol,” he said.
“Unionism is fully entitled to express its unequivocal opposition to the protocol in a public and peaceful way.
“The protocol has undemocratically altered Northern Ireland’s constitutional position and dealt a hammer blow to prosperity in all corners of our province.
“Not a single unionist representative supports the Irish Sea border.”
Read more: Election candidate's bizarre voicemail to voter after posters complaint
Read more: Key constituency battles as parties seek to secure votes
For the latest politics news straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.
