Sinn Fein lash out at Johnson
THE Sinn Fein president yesterday accused Boris Johnson of “placating” the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) over power-sharing and the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Mary Lou McDonald described a “fairly tough” meeting yesterday with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as the impasse over the formation of the Northern Ireland Executive continues.
Mr Johnson visited the region to meet with the major Stormont parties. Speaking after a meeting with the Prime Minister at Hillsborough Castle, Ms McDonald said it appears the UK Government’s priority is “placating the DUP”.
“It’s very clear to us that despite all of the rhetoric from the British Government about re-establishing the Executive here in the north, that in fact their priority is placating the DUP,” she said. “We’ve had what we would describe as a fairly tough meeting with the Prime Minister. We have put it to him very directly that the absolute priority is getting government working here in the north.
“We have said directly to him that proposed unilateral act of legislating at Westminster is wrong. It seems to us absolutely extraordinary that the British Government would propose to legislate to break the law. It’s an extraordinary proposal and one that would amplify the bad faith with which the Tory government has conducted itself from the beginning of the entire Brexit debacle.
“I’m sorry to report that we’ve had no straight answers, really, from the British Prime Minister except a confirmation of what we already knew, which is that in fact this impasse is entirely co-ordinated between themselves and the DUP, and, if the DUP are acting shamefully in holding back government, well, then the British Government is behaving even more shamefully.”
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, following his meeting with the prime minister, said that he “set out in very clear terms” what is needed from the British Government in relation to the protocol.
“We cannot go on like this,” he said, after meeting Mr Johnson.
Sir Jeffrey rejected the idea that Mr Johnson was picking sides in the row over the protocol.
He added: “This is the same Sinn Fein who were in Dublin this morning asking the Irish Government to take their side.”
Sir Jeffrey said: “The Prime Minister is here because it is his job to protect Northern Ireland and it is his job to ensure that we have the right to trade freely within our own country.”
Mr Johnson said legislation to rip up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol was “insurance” in case a deal could not be reached with the European Union.
“None of the parties, not one of them likes the way it’s operating, they all think it can be reformed and improved,” the Prime Minister told reporters. “The question is how do you do that? We would love this to be done in a consensual way with our friends and partners, ironing out the problems, but to get that done, to have the insurance, we need to proceed with a legislative solution as well.”