DUP and Alliance offices targeted with graffiti

Kellie Armstrong MLA said the damage will not stop her representing constituents

Constituency offices belonging to DUP and Alliance Party representatives in Ards and North Down have been damaged with graffiti.

The DUP confirmed offices belonging to Education Minister Peter Weir and Jim Shannon MP were targeted in Newtownards.

An office in the town belonging to Alliance MLA Kellie Armstrong was also sprayed with graffiti.

Alliance MP Stephen Farry confirmed an attack on his Bangor office.

Naomi Long, Alliance Party leader, said all of the attacks were "completely unacceptable".

"No elected rep should have to put up with this harassment and abuse to do their job," she said in a post on social media.

The incidents follow graffiti sprayed in a number of areas in recent days showing opposition to the NI Protocol in the government's Brexit deal with the European Union.

Stephen Farry said he would not be deflected from doing his job as North Down MP

The graffiti attacks on constituency offices were widely condemned by parties in the NI Assembly on Tuesday.

William Irwin, a DUP MLA in Newry and Armagh, told the assembly he had been contacted by police on Saturday and told of a threat being made against him.

He said those behind what he described as "sinister activity" to desist immediately.

Sinn Féin MLA Linda Dillon said MLAs should have "cool heads" and there was a need to "temper our language".

"We need to know that the tone that we set in this place is what will happen outside, and for us not to take full responsibility for that is disingenuous," she said.

SDLP MLA Patsy McGlone labelled the incidents as despicable, while UUP MLA Roy Beggs said he believed discontent in the unionist community could grow "as more and more people recognise that they have difficulty buying seeds, plants, small parcels, not being to get goods to delivered to them".

The East Antrim representative said there needed to be an "adjustment" to the Northern Ireland protocol.

On Monday, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council withdrew staff from Brexit inspection duties after fears for their safety were expressed.

EU officials have also been advised not to attend work at NI's ports.