'Stop dodging unification timeline' - McDonald tells Labour

The Sinn Féin leader was speaking at a fringe event at the Labour Party conference

Mary Lou McDonald has called for the UK government to stop "dodging" a timeline on Irish unification.

The Sinn Féin leader was speaking at a fringe event in Liverpool at the Labour Party conference.

At a separate event on Sunday, the Northern Ireland secretary said the restoration of the Stormont institutions created "a moment of opportunity" that needed to be seized upon.

The Sinn Féin president reconfirmed the party's commitment to have a border poll called in the next six years.

'No more dodging'

She said history would not reflect kindly on a Labour prime minister who would not grasp this opportunity.

"The moment will come to name the date but first the British government must make clear its intention to trigger a referendum as per the Good Friday Agreement and set out the threshold for the referendum as they see it.

"No more dodging clear honest conversations," she added.

She also set out the steps a Sinn Féin government would take towards Irish unity.

They included appointing a minister to oversee the process, setting up a citizen assembly and giving speaking rights in the Dáil (lower house of Irish parliament) to MPs from Northern Ireland.

'Hard earned'

The Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said political stability was "hard earned and it must be maintained".

Benn added that he was aware of the pressures the Windsor framework was creating - Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trade arrangements - but hoped with "pragmatism and proportionality" that "there is a prize at the end of this process".

Speaking at a Retail NI reception at the Labour party conference, Benn added"in order to get a veterinary agreement in the future, we have to honour the agreements we've signed in the past for reasons that will be obvious to every single person in the room".

Benn is to deliver his keynote address to the Labour Party conference on Monday.