IAN Paisley has insisted Britain will thrive after Brexit and that EU member states will "look jealously" at its new-found prosperity.
The DUP MP told The Irish News that Northern Ireland would also "grow proportionately" as Britain enjoyed economic success, having secured a series of free trade deals that he said the EU had so far failed to deliver.
He was speaking ahead of today's Westminster debate on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which Mr Paisley and his DUP colleagues have signalled they will vote against.
He said he was happy that the "command of the British people is finally being realised".
"The UK has at last left the European Union and once we’re out there’s no way back," he said.
However, the North Antrim MP said he and his fellow DUP MPs had agreed unanimously to vote against the deal agreed on Christmas Eve
“It's a great pity that two Conservative prime ministers – who call themselves unionists – rolled over for the EU and Irish government and agreed to a protocol that they didn't have to agree to,” he said.
"They should have instead negotiated from a position of strength and today we could have all been leaving under the absolute same terms."
He said that while the worse aspects of the protocol had been mitigated, the DUP would not vote for an agreement that "had that major flaw in it".
Mr Paisley said he had backed Brexit "for economic reasons not ideological ones" and that the UK would prosper in the coming years.
"Over the next five-ten years other EU member states will look jealously at the UK and wonder how they can get out of an arrangement that doesn’t work for them," he said.
But the DUP MP's claims have been rejected by pro-EU parties north and south.
Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan, tipped by many as a successor to Micheál Martin, said he wished the UK "every success" outside EU but said Brexit was a "regressive step" that would be economically damaging.
"Fortunately, the Irish protocol will protect businesses and farmers in Northern Ireland from the most severe consequences of Brexit," the Dublin Bay South TD said.
"In the next five to 10 years I suspect the benefits of retaining and increasing economic and social links with the European Union will be seen by a large majority of people in Northern Ireland – even larger than the majority that voted against Brexit."
Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard said there was "no good Brexit for the people of Ireland".
"From day one, the DUP have been on the wrong side of the Brexit argument and ignored the damage it will do to our island," he said.
“The priority now must be the full implementation of the Irish Protocol and the protections it provides to our businesses."
SDLP MLA Matthew O'Toole said "no serious economic forecaster" thought the trade deal or Brexit would be good for the UK economy.
"Paisley's pathetic bluster is another attempt to distract from their culpability in this Brexit mess," he said.
"As always with the DUP, absence of shame should not be mistaken for absence of guilt – they own this mess."
Ulster Unionist peer Lord Reg Empey, who holds the DUP responsible for conceding the regulatory border in the Irish Sea, said he would expect some regret from a party that "presided over such a strategic and political disaster".
"So far, there has not been a sliver of regret expressed, never mind an apology to the people of Northern Ireland for allowing them to be annexed by a foreign power, which the EU will become on January 1," he said."
"Some DUP leaders may think that this will all blow over and they can move on – it's not going to happen."
