Ulster’s new leader: We’ll have Irish unity vote within a decade
A REFERENDUM on a united Ireland will take place within a decade, Northern Ireland’s new First Minister has insisted – as Rishi Sunak arrived to mark the restoration of powersharing at Stormont.
Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill, who was installed on Saturday, risked stoking tensions by saying she would push the PM for a vote on reunification during his visit.
Last night, Mr Sunak met emergency responders and other public servants working in the province to thank them for their service.
He will meet republican Ms O’Neill and the new Deputy First Minister, the DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly, today.
Both were installed after Mr Sunak’s new deal for postBrexit trading rules governing Northern Ireland was approved by DUP unionists and passed by Parliament last week.
It means Stormont has started sitting for the first time in two years.
The two top jobs in the ministerial executive wield equal power and responsibility.
But the elevation of a republican to the office of First Minister – due to Sinn Fein becoming the region’s largest political party in the 2022 Assembly election – was a symbolic moment.
The DUP boycotted powersharing in February 2022 in protest at previous postBrexit trade checks, which were blamed for driving a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
The political deadlock left Stormont paralysed.
Asked whether she expected a vote on uniting the island of Ireland within ten years, Ms O’Neill told Sky News: ‘ Yes. I believe we’re in a decade of opportunity. And there are so many things that are changing all the old norms – the nature of the state, the fact that a nationalist republican was never supposed to be First Minister. This all speaks to that change... and so the next decade, I think, is the decade of opportunity.’
Ms O’Neill said she would ‘absolutely contest’ the insistence of UK ministers that a border poll is decades away.
She added on RTE that ‘when I meet [Northern Ireland Secretary] Chris HeatonHarris or Rishi Sunak as the British Prime Minister, I’ll make sure that message... he hears very loud and clear’.
Mr Heaton- Harris, who would need to agree that there was strong support for a referendum to agree for one to be held, said last week that he did not expect to see a united Ireland in his lifetime. Mr Heaton-Harris is 56.
Mr Sunak will meet Ms O’Neill and Ms Little-Pengelly at Stormont Castle today.
He will also attend the Parliament buildings in Stormont to discuss their immediate plans for government.
In her speech to the reconvened Assembly, Ms O’Neill said: ‘Today opens the door to the future – a shared future. I am honoured to stand here as First Minister.’
Ms Little-Pengelly said she and Ms O’Neill come from ‘very different backgrounds’ but that for her part she would work ‘tirelessly to ensure that we can deliver for all in Northern Ireland’.
Mr Heaton-Harris described it as a ‘great day for Northern Ireland’ and said he was confident that devolved government in Northern Ireland was ‘sustainable in the very long term’.
‘Risks stoking tensions’