UK demands 'real leadership' from Northern Ireland unionists
Published: 06:04 PM,Apr 18,2023 | EDITED : 09:04 PM,Apr 18,2023
BELFAST: The UK government on Tuesday issued its strongest appeal yet to unionists in Northern Ireland to restore the region's power-sharing government.
The Conservative government called on the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to embrace 'real leadership' and emulate predecessors who forged Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord, which ended three decades of violence against British rule.
The DUP has been boycotting the divided territory's government at Stormont over post-Brexit trading arrangements agreed with the European Union, despite itself supporting the UK's split from the EU.
The party has been under sustained pressure from London, Dublin, Brussels and Washington, peaking in a visit to the island last week by US President Joe Biden.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris delivered the UK government's sharpest rhetoric yet, in a speech to a conference marking the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday peace agreement.
Everyone in Northern Ireland wants better public services, economic prosperity and a brighter future for their children, the minister told the audience at Queen's University in Belfast.
'The biggest threat to Northern Ireland's place in the (UK) union is failing to deliver on these priorities,' he said.
At the conference, EU Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said he had consulted widely with business leaders in Northern Ireland.
'What... I heard very clearly was, they need predictability,' said Sefcovic, who led talks for the new deal with the UK, dubbed the 'Windsor Framework'.
'They need stability,' he added, urging political leaders to learn from the 'inclusivity' that resulted in the Good Friday Agreement.
Other Northern Irish leaders said the DUP and Conservatives only had themselves to blame for refusing to accept the inevitable consequences of Brexit.
Ireland's foreign minister Micheal Martin said London and Brussels had worked hard to clinch the Windsor Framework, in a bid to placate the DUP by diluting the border checks.
All leaders in Northern Ireland had the 'responsibility to accept democratic outcomes', Martin said. — AFP
The Conservative government called on the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to embrace 'real leadership' and emulate predecessors who forged Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord, which ended three decades of violence against British rule.
The DUP has been boycotting the divided territory's government at Stormont over post-Brexit trading arrangements agreed with the European Union, despite itself supporting the UK's split from the EU.
The party has been under sustained pressure from London, Dublin, Brussels and Washington, peaking in a visit to the island last week by US President Joe Biden.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris delivered the UK government's sharpest rhetoric yet, in a speech to a conference marking the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday peace agreement.
Everyone in Northern Ireland wants better public services, economic prosperity and a brighter future for their children, the minister told the audience at Queen's University in Belfast.
'The biggest threat to Northern Ireland's place in the (UK) union is failing to deliver on these priorities,' he said.
At the conference, EU Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic said he had consulted widely with business leaders in Northern Ireland.
'What... I heard very clearly was, they need predictability,' said Sefcovic, who led talks for the new deal with the UK, dubbed the 'Windsor Framework'.
'They need stability,' he added, urging political leaders to learn from the 'inclusivity' that resulted in the Good Friday Agreement.
Other Northern Irish leaders said the DUP and Conservatives only had themselves to blame for refusing to accept the inevitable consequences of Brexit.
Ireland's foreign minister Micheal Martin said London and Brussels had worked hard to clinch the Windsor Framework, in a bid to placate the DUP by diluting the border checks.
All leaders in Northern Ireland had the 'responsibility to accept democratic outcomes', Martin said. — AFP