Call for leaders to join NI talks

SINN FEIN has called on the Prime Minister and Irish Taoiseach to become directly involved in talks to save power-sharing in Northern Ireland.

The republican party said Theresa May and Leo Varadkar had to engage as a “matter of urgency” to inject the “step change” needed to secure an agreement.

Accusing the Democratic Unionists of refusing to budge on central issues, Sinn Fein negotiator John O’Dowd said the two governments had to press the main unionist party to give ground.

As talks resumed at Stormont Castle in Belfast after Thursday’s deadline for agreement came and went, Mr O’Dowd claimed the DUP had become “emboldened” by its parliamentary deal with the Conservative Party at Westminster and had entrenched its stance at Stormont as a result.

“After weeks of negotiations the DUP have still not agreed to the rights-based society that we require,” he said.

Mr O’Dowd said the main sticking points were related to his party’s demands for an Irish Language Act, a Northern Ireland specific Bill of Rights and legalisation of same sex-marriage in the region.

“The DUP’s relationship with the Tory government has emboldened them, it has entrenched their positions in regards all those measures that need to be resolved,” he said.

He added: “The British government need to remove their partisan approach and set aside their relationship with the DUP if these talks are to succeed.”

Mr O’Dowd suggested any progress that had been made had been “snail-like”.

He said: “We will stay here as long as there is a glimmer of hope that there will be success in these talks, but we are realists.” THE CONSERVATIVES need a political message that will appeal to voters in major cities, First Secretary Damian Green will say today.

Mr Green, effectively Theresa May’s deputy, will make the case for “City Conservativism” at a conference organised by the Bright Blue group.

He will tell the event that the party needs “a distinctive Conservative message” in cities.

He will say: “We have already achieved a huge amount, with the creation of genuine local power centres through the mayors, and the growing number of City Deals which put large sums of money under the control of local institutions to regenerate and develop the cities.

“We clearly are getting no electoral credit for this, partly because we have not developed a clear message about why we are doing this.

“The message is a combination of two essential Conservative principles. First, that decisions should be taken as locally as is practical. Secondly, that it is only through individual flair and ideas and freedoms that the dynamism of a great city comes to pass.

“All the central planning in the world does not create a London or Manchester or Glasgow – creative places where millions of disparate individuals find their own niche, and create new communities.

“Building on this to create a new City Conservatism is one of our challenges.”

Mr Green will argue the Conservative Party will need to “think hard, work hard, and change hard” as it looks to win the next General Election.

He will tell the conference that it is “clear” that the party failed to win a majority in last month’s General Election because of Labour’s success in appealing to voters aged 18 to 35.

“If we are to bring young, educated, working Britain back to the Conservative Party, we need to make a reality of the promise to build a country that works for everyone,” Mr Green will say.