Foster claims EU is ‘breaking up UK’
DUP leader Arlene Forster attacked the EU as “belligerent” and claimed Brussels was trying to “break up the UK” as the arrival of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Northern Ireland showed no signs of breaking the impasse between parties at Stormont or with the government in Dublin over the Irish border.
Calling on Brussels and Dublin to “dial back the rhetoric”, Ms Foster had harsh words of her own, blaming the ongoing disagreement on a “belligerent EU who instead of focusing on a deal that was good for all of us, wanted to break up the United Kingdom”.
Mr Johnson was accused of undermining the UK government’s impartiality in the region after holding a private dinner with senior DUP figures on the eve of his first talks with Northern Irish parties.
Mr Johnson denied a conflict of interest as he was asked yesterday morning about the previous night’s dinner at a luxury hotel on the outskirts of Belfast.
“It’s all there in the Good Friday Agreement, we believe in complete impartiality and that’s what we are going to observe,” he said.
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou Mcdonald said Mr Johnson’s stated claim of impartiality was “laughable”.
And the SDLP’S deputy leader Nichola Mallon claimed Mr Johnson’s “wining and dining” of the DUP set the wrong tone for the visit.
A Downing Street spokesman said the Prime Minister had stressed the need for “serious and intense engagement” to resurrect powersharing.