Sunak shakes hands with Northern Ireland’s first Irish nationalist prime minister

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Rishi Sunak has met Northern Ireland’s first Irish nationalist prime minister, Michelle O’Neill, to mark the restoration of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing arrangement.

The Prime Minister met with Stormont’s new Sinn Féin leader and other senior leaders on Saturday as Northern Ireland’s executive government reconstituted to end a two-year deadlock.

The devolved government, led by Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill and DUP’s Emma Little-Pengery as deputy prime ministers, is also due to hold its first meeting on Monday to address the state’s tight finances.

The meeting came as Mr Sunak’s Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told Mr O’Neill that he should focus on improving public services rather than raising the issue of Irish unity.

Conservative cabinet ministers have ruled out a border poll on unity after Mr O’Neill claimed there could be one within the next 10 years.

Mr Heaton-Harris said the conditions for a referendum were “clearly not met at this time” and downplayed the possibility of a referendum being held within 10 years.

He told LBC that he needed to be “convinced” that a potentially large majority of people in Northern Ireland “want to leave our current constitutional position”.

Heaton-Harris added: “What I would suggest is that the real priorities for the next executive should be public sector pay, health services…funding education and a lot of other things that really touch everyone. ” Northern Ireland in both communities really cares. ”

DUP leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson has criticized the new Sinn Féin leader for focusing on the “divisive” issue of unity. ”

“She says she wants to be the first minister for everyone, and by that I mean the unionist community,” he told Sky News. “Let’s focus on the issues that really matter to people. They’re not interested in polls that divide borders.”

Ms O’Neill, who on Sunday became the first nationalist to become chancellor of Stormont University, said:

“All the old norms, the nature of this mansion, the fact that a nationalist and republican was never supposed to be prime minister. This all speaks to that change,” she said.

Mr Sunak and Mr Heaton-Harris met with leader Mr O’Neill and Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald in Stormont on Monday.

Sinn Féin leaders are understood to have opposed elements of the UK’s recent agreement with the DUP over concerns that the UK was taking a pro-Union approach to issues such as border checks. There is.

They are also believed to have stressed the need for the UK government to remain impartial when it comes to holding a future referendum on Northern Ireland’s constitutional future.

These schemes were reinstated following an agreement between Sunak’s government and the DUP to allay union members’ concerns about post-Brexit trade deals.

Mr Heaton-Harris suggested post-Brexit issues relating to Northern Ireland were not over yet when pressed by the BBC breakfast What if, after “eight years of uncertainty”, Brexit “actually happened”?

“This is an issue that will never be resolved…the land border with the European single market here in Northern Ireland,” the minister said.

But Mr Heaton-Harris insisted the latest deal with the DUP to ease checks was an “opportunity” to give the state smooth access to the UK and EU single market.

The Prime Minister also met with Mr O’Neill and his deputy, Mr Little Pengelly, at Stormont Castle, and told executive Sinn Féin and DUP leaders: “Today is not the end, but the beginning, and the real work is yet to come.” It’s starting,” he said.

Mr Sunak’s government has proposed a £3.3bn package to stabilize the region’s finances and settle public sector pay claims.

But the executive is likely to press Mr. Sunak for more funding. A letter from all Stormont ministers to No. 10 states that the current proposed fiscal policy “does not provide the basis for the Executive to deliver sustainable public services and public finances”. There is.

The Prime Minister said the proposal represented a “generous and fair settlement”. He added: “For far too long we haven’t had a decentralized government up and running here. But now that we have it, they can focus on providing for everyone. Ta.”

Mr Sunak also met with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at Stormont when the two leaders visited Belfast to mark the restoration of decentralized government.