Focus On 'Day To Day', Not A United Ireland, Sunak Warns

Rishi Sunak has told Sinn Fein to focus on the day to day” concerns of people in Northern Ireland rather than a referendum on Irish reunification.

- ADAM FORREST

The PM said “constitutional change” should not be a priority for the Irish nationalist party, after newly appointed first minister Michelle O’Neill claimed a border poll could be held in the next 10 years.

Mr Sunak met Stormont’s party leaders and the Republic of Ireland’s premier Leo Varadkar yesterday after the Northern Ireland Executive reformed on Saturday to end a two-year stalemate.

Mr Sunak said the £3bn funding boost would deliver for Northern Ireland’s families and businesses. “That’s what everyone’s priority is now – it is not constitutional change, it is delivering on the day-to-day things that matter to people.”

The devolved government – headed by Sinn Fein’s Ms O’Neill and the DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly as deputy first minister – held its first meeting yesterday to start dealing with the province’s strained finances.

The meetings came as Mr Sunak’s Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris told Ms O’Neill that she should focus on improving public services rather than the issue of Irish reunification.

The Tory cabinet minister dismissed the prospect of a border poll after Ms O’Neill claimed one could be held in the next decade. Mr Heaton-Harris said the conditions for a referendum were “definitely not met at this time”.

He told LBC that he would have to be “confident” that there was a potential majority of people in Northern Ireland “who would like to depart from their current constitutional status”.