Boris warned not to be DUP’s gopher during N.Ireland visit
Boris Johnson’s first visit to Wales as Prime Minister on Tuesday was not the resounding success he would have hoped. Political editor Ruth Mosalski was at the scene and explains why
BORIS Johnson was warned not be the DUP’s gopher as he faced claims of bias on his first visit to Northern Ireland as Prime Minister.
Mr Johnson was accused of undermining the Government’s stated impartiality in the region after holding a private dinner with senior DUP figures on the eve of his first substantive intervention in the powersharing impasse at Stormont.
The Conservative leader, who relies on the support of the DUP’s 10 MPS for a Commons majority, met with all the main Stormont parties in Belfast yesterday to discuss a governance crisis that has left the region shorn of a devolved executive for two and half years.
Brexit was also high on the agenda during his bilateral engagements with the main parties.
Some of the politicians used the encounters to raise concerns about his Government’s confidence and supply deal with the DUP, accusing him of compromising his obligation to act impartially in the region.
Mr Johnson denied a conflict of interest as he was asked 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.
“But the crucial thing is to get this Stormont government up and running again.”
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said Mr Johnson’s stated claim of impartiality was “laughable”.
“He tells us he will act with absolute impartiality, we have told him
that nobody believes that,” she said.
“Nobody believes that because there are no grounds to believe there is any kind of impartiality, much less strict impartiality.”
The republican leader said the confidence and supply deal with the DUP had “poisoned the groundwater” at Stormont.
“He asked for our advice and we have strongly advised him that to make progress here he needs to ensure that he is not the DUP’s gopher, he needs to stop mollycoddling them, he needs to spell out the realities of life to them and put pressure on his unionist colleagues to ensure we can land on an equitable and sustainable agreement,” she said.
The SDLP’s deputy leader Nichola Mallon claimed Mr Johnson’s “wining and dining” of the DUP had set the wrong tone for the visit.
“It sends a message that he has a cosy relationship with one party here in Northern Ireland and that’s damaging to our peace process,” she said.
DUP leader Arlene Foster, who attended the dinner along with deputy leader Nigel Dodds and party whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, robustly rejected criticism of the confidence and supply deal.
The DUP’s 10 MPs have propped up the minority Government since the 2017 general election – an arrangement that delivered a £1bn boost in public spending in Northern Ireland.
“The confidence and supply agreement has been good for the people of Northern Ireland,” she said.
“You would think to hear some people that it was some bad thing that had been visited upon the people of Northern Ireland. We have delivered an extra billion pounds for the people of Northern Ireland, which they wouldn’t otherwise have if it were not for the relationship between ourselves and the current government”
Mrs Foster was particularly critical of Sinn Fein’s remarks.
“I don’t feel mollycoddled at all,” she said.
“I think it is highly pejorative and actually quite offensive when the Prime Minister of the UK comes to this country and that is the sort of reaction he gets from Sinn Fein.”
Mr Dodds challenged Sinn Fein to rule out becoming a coalition partner in any future Irish government.
“If they criticise that (the confidence and supply deal) so strongly as being contrary to the Good Friday Agreement then clearly they will not want to have anything to do with a future Dublin government, which they describe as the co-guarantors of the agreement, or perhaps they are being somewhat selective in their approach to this particular issue?” he said.
Mr Johnson insisted he was in Northern Ireland to concentrate on the devolution impasse.
“Clearly the people in Northern Ireland have been without a govern
ment, without Stormont, for two years and six months, so my prime focus this morning is to do everything I can to help that get up and running again because I think that’s profoundly in the interests of people here, of all the citizens here in Northern Ireland,” he said.
After Mr Johnson departed Stormont at the conclusion of his meetings, a Downing Street spokesman said the Prime Minister had stressed the need for “serious and intense engagement” to resurrect powersharing.
“The Prime Minister told all of the parties that he was determined to bring this process to a successful conclusion and that he would do everything he could to make it happen,” he said.
“He said that while there had been constructive progress in recent weeks at Stormont, that there now needed to be serious and intense engagement to get this done and that he had faith that all parties would step up to the challenge.”
Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government since early 2017, with hamstrung civil servants currently running underpressure public services amid a reluctance by the Government to reintroduce direct rule.
Stormont’s two main parties – the DUP and Sinn Fein – remain at loggerheads over a series of long-standing disputes, with a series of talks initiatives aimed at securing a resolution having ended in failure.
Mr Johnson’s visit came amid deadlock in the latest talks process.
Workers from the under-threat shipyard Harland and Wolff; antiBrexit campaigners; Irish language activists; and families of people killed by the security forces during the Troubles were among those who held protests at Stormont to mark Mr Johnson’s visit.
The last DUP/Sinn Fein-led powersharing coalition imploded in January 2017 when the late Martin McGuinness quit as Sinn Fein deputy first minister amid a row about a botched green energy scheme.
The fallout over the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was soon overtaken by disputes over the Irish language, same-sex marriage and the toxic legacy of the Troubles.
The five main Stormont parties held a roundtable on Wednesday afternoon, together with an Irish government representative.
Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith asked five independent working group leaders to hold further meetings and report back early next week.
He said: “I will discuss further steps with the Irish government once I have received their reports.
“It is my priority to restore devolution as soon as possible.”
BORIS Johnson’s four-hour first visit to Wales as Prime Minister was not exactly a resounding success.
He survived any serious incident with chickens, but he has been publicly criticised by the National Union of Journalists, he disappointed people who gathered to see him in Brecon, he was booed outside the Senedd and he was accused of “vacuous optimism” by Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford.
In his time in Wales, the new PM was photographed in three different places, and covered at least five counties. But in reality, the first glimpse Wales got of the new Prime Minister was pretty fleeting. Very few people got to actually see, let alone speak to him.
BoJo’s skill is with people, among crowds. But that didn’t happen.
The only ones he did see were protesters who had gathered at the Senedd and shouted “not my PM” at him as he left.
To them, he waved and smiled. Media access, too, was curtailed. The reason why, we don’t know – had the images of him being booed in Scotland scared his people?
Mr Johnson has long courted the media and the headlines. But this visit was nothing short of chaotic.
Stop one was Shervington Farm, St Bride’s Wentlooge, between Cardiff and Newport.
Farm owner Victoria ShervingtonJones patiently explained to me how their egg business would be affected by a no-deal Brexit. She is scared of safety standards being lowered and lower-quality powdered and liquid egg products flooding into the UK from America or Ukraine.
Concerns that sheep farmers have about a no-deal Brexit – around 40% of Welsh lamb is exported with 92% of those exports going to EU countries – and warnings of the mass slaughter of lambs, went unanswered as Mr Johnson avoided visiting any sheep farms.
While Mr Johnson inspected the poultry, the awaiting press were kept cooped in an outbuilding.
This isn’t how it usually works. Before any such event, the media are usually briefed.
There are rules we have to abide by, and we do because that’s the way we get access to ask questions.
Restrictions on space usually mean one broadcast team and a broadcast journalist will accompany the visiting politician. Those not in that “pool” are free to hang about, get the images or shots they need, and wait for interview slots.
But there was none of that.
Local, regional and national press were kept in an outbuilding, waiting for the tour to finish.
The “huddle” where we get to ask our questions wasn’t allowed to be videoed, photographed or, at one point, even recorded on dictaphones.
There would only be one pooled clip filmed by a UK broadcaster to be distributed to all media outlets.
While the lack of filming isn’t a huge problem for people whose reports will largely be written, it is a major issue for the broadcasters.
Adrian Masters, of ITV Wales, wrote on Twitter than he would have to read any quotes on camera if he had joined the “huddle”.
In a thread on Twitter he wrote: “I refused this offer. I hate to have turned down the chance to challenge Boris Johnson, but I wouldn’t have been able to broadcast any of it. I’d have had to read quotes to the audience tonight.”
The press who did attend were kept inside while Mr Johnson arrived and then escorted into a second building for the interview – 10 minutes for five journalists.
He is very different to Theresa May.
As we were escorted in, Mr Johnson was on his feet, smiles and handshakes – an offer of Welsh cakes to break the ice.
He did take interruptions, and many more than the one question, but what was sorely missing, despite the best efforts of myself and other journalists was answers.
However we phrased it, whoever asked, we didn’t get anywhere.
We asked him about no-deal, the warnings from experts about just how badly Wales will be affected. We asked about tariffs, protection for farmers, slaughtering of lambs.
The responses? A variety of “The detail will follow”... “there are plans – but they’ll be announced later”... “don’t worry about that, it won’t happen” came back at us.
When he backed Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns’ comments on the Today programme earlier on Tuesday about new markets for Welsh farmers after Brexit, I interjected, pointing out that the trade deal with Japan Mr Cairns had referred to was a EUJapan trade deal, not a UK-Japan trade deal, and the UK would have no agreement with Japan if it left the EU without a deal.
He dodged the question, even though I repeated it for a third time, and there was a wry smile and a mischievous look.
He had no intention of answering. His next stop was Brecon, ahead of today’s crucial by-election.
The emailed quote from him endorsing the Tory candidate Chris Davies had already landed before he had even left Newport.
As he stood in rainy Newport, giving that controversial pooled clip to be distributed to all broadcasters, I left knowing at some point, he’d pass me.
His motorcade passed me at Cardiff Gate – if you’re ever in need of a satnav to guide the way, a prime ministerial motorcade is an easy one to spot.
He arrived in Brecon, at the sizeable offices of BVG group on an industrial estate out of town.
Once I’d been escorted inside, again there was a single question.
For the second time in almost as many hours, he explained his Government would improve education – and when quizzed, he said he would provide funding for Welsh Government which he hoped they’d spend on education.
Seemingly remembering where he was, he threw in a dig about the Welsh Government’s M4 relief road bill.
By now, there were crowds in the town centre – but their trip was wasted, their ponchos unwrapped for no reason, the brollies set to dry out again.
It’s not clear how concrete the plans for a walkabout had ever been but the crowds had certainly made the effort. Mr Johnson did not.
If you’re there to promote a candidate, surely meeting some members of the public, shaking hands and selfies is a must?
Or was he simply ticking a box by campaigning in a by-election constituency without too many photo ops with a candidate who has admitted a criminal offence by faking expense claims to stop the public seeing how much he had spent on photos and who the polls suggest will lose his seat?
You decide.
Then it was back down the A470, because Mr Johnson was due in Cardiff for 6pm for a meeting with First Minister Mark Drakeford.
He arrived early for the private meeting and was booed as he left by a small crowd of campaigners from Stand Up to Racism Cardiff who had gathered outside.
After the meeting Prof Drakeford pulled no punches about the lack of detail from the Prime Minister.
He revealed Mr Johnson had told him the chance of no deal was “vanishingly small” – and when asked if he could hold him to that, Prof Drakeford said that he had no choice but to take him at his word.
There was, he told journalists, an open conversation about the future of the UK, but he told reporters: “We need more than vacuous optimism.”
In a “read out” of the meeting emailed to reporters afterwards the Welsh Government described the discussions as “substantial”, but with “fundamentally different views on Brexit”.
If the tactic of Mr Johnson’s campaign team was to keep him under wraps to minimise any scandal or damage, it does not seem to have worked.
Maybe it’s just teething problems. But, as a broadcast colleague pointed out, this was a visit to show how important the union is to him as Prime Minsiter and he should have given people – and the Press – a chance to see if that’s true.
There are tough questions to be asked.
And whether he chooses to do that in a chicken shed, an office or on a layby on the A470, it doesn’t matter, they must be answered.