Brexit: Mixed NI party response to PM Salzburg comments
- Published
Nigel Dodds welcomed Mrs May's comments while Michelle O'Neill said they were 'nothing new'
The prime minister's stern statement to the EU summit in Salzburg has received a mixed reaction from Northern Ireland's political parties.
Theresa May's rejection of a border in the Irish Sea was welcomed by both DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds and Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann.
However, Sinn Féin Deputy Leader Michelle O'Neill said her comments contained "nothing new".
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood accused her government of "belligerence".
Speaking at Downing Street on Friday following the summit, Mrs May said she rejected a proposal by the EU to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union while the rest of the UK was out of it.
The prime minister said the UK and the EU remain a "long way apart" on the border issue
The prime minister also reaffirmed the government's commitment to no hard border in Northern Ireland.
"I will not overturn the result of the referendum. Nor will I break up my country," she said.
DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds welcomed Mrs May's reassurances on the border, but called for her to now "stand up" for the UK's interests.
"It is time now that the prime minister demonstrates publicly, privately and to everyone in her own party and to Europe, to parliament, that she is going to stand up for the UK's interest, including in Northern Ireland, that she is not going to be pushed around by Europe, she's not going to be bullied, she's not going to be coerced into either doing a bad deal for the UK or breaking the UK," Mr Dodds told the BBC.
Mrs May spoke to EU leaders for 10 minutes over dinner in Salzburg
The North Belfast MP also revealed his party had been in regular contact with the government over recent days and weeks.
"I think the prime minister's very firm reiteration of not breaking up the UK, of the importance of what she has described as our precious union, is coming across very, very strongly," he added.
However, Michelle O'Neill gave a very different reaction, comparing the summit in Salzburg to "a game of chicken" and saying that the UK government went into talks with the EU leaders "with nothing new to present".
"They have continually brought forward previous things that had been rejected by the EU, so they went out and again showed that blatant disregard which they continually produce every time they go round the tables to discuss Brexit," Mrs O'Neill told the BBC.
Special status
"We know Brexit is bad here - the implications are catastrophic.
"We've made the case for special status and I will go out along with the other party leaders in the next number of weeks and actually make that case again to Michel Barnier."
Meanwhile, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the prime minister was "doubling down on her already unworkable 'take it or leave it' belligerence as a tactic to deliver Brexit".
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood criticised Mrs May's comments
"Despite the EU attempting to give the UK encouragement to take steps that will be in the best interests of our citizens, the prime minister has chosen to continue with her failed strategy," he said.
"In failing to adequately respond to the mess of their own making, the UK government have left the people of Northern Ireland in an extremely vulnerable position."
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Robin Swann gave a strong welcome to Mrs May's statement.
"The single sentence 'I will not overturn the result of the referendum, nor will I break up my country' indicates that the prime minister has grasped fully what the result of agreeing to any deal which involved 'special status' or a separate set of arrangements for Northern Ireland would really mean," he said.
UUP leader Robin Swann gave a strong welcome to the statement
"As the UUP has said before, Brexit cannot and must not be used to establish an internal border within the United Kingdom of any form. The referendum was about whether or not the UK left the EU, it was not about whether or not Northern Ireland left the UK.
"Unionists will be reassured by the prime minister's comments today and her commitment to ensuring that Northern Ireland will not be used as a bargaining chip in the Brexit negotiations."
- Published21 September 2018
