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LONDON — Sinn Féin accused Boris Johnson of refusing to discuss policy issues straining Northern Ireland’s coalition government while on an official visit to the region.
The British prime minister landed in the region on Friday afternoon to see firsthand how the U.K. government is helping Northern Ireland combat the coronavirus pandemic, according to his official spokesman.
Johnson is due to visit a vaccination center with Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s first minister and Democratic Unionist Party leader, and the region’s Health Minister Robin Swann. Johnson will later meet Foster in private, but the agenda does not include a meeting with Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister and Sinn Féin vice president.
When Johnson last visited the region in August 2020 he appeared publicly alongside Foster and O’Neill together at Hillsborough Castle, the official residence of the secretary of state for Northern Ireland.
A Sinn Féin official said O’Neill was only invited to join Johnson for media opportunities, but what the party wanted was a proper sit-down discussion with the prime minister to tackle a range of policy issues that threaten the stability of Northern Ireland’s ruling executive, including the unfulfilled parts of agreements between the two halves of the coalition struck in 2015 and 2020 with the intervention of the U.K. government.
“Boris was willing to invite us for photo ops, not for a serious discussion. On that basis, we are declining to attend. We’re not interested in playing along with Boris’ PR machine. We want and need serious discussion on a wide range of issues that the British prime minister ought to care about. Boris seems to want to support Arlene’s position. We’ll leave him to that,” the official said.
O’Neill took to Twitter to say “I won’t be meeting Boris Johnson today,” adding that she and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald “have a long standing request to meet the British PM to discuss commitments his govt have reneged on & also his reckless and partisan approach to the Irish Protocol. He did not facilitate the meeting request.”
Johnson’s official spokesman declined to respond to this allegation. He was also unable to say whether the prime minister would meet the Social Democratic and Labour Party.
“Michelle O’Neill was invited to join the prime minister during the visit. I don’t have anything else to add,” the spokesman said.
The two parties are bitterly divided on the Northern Ireland Protocol, the component of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement that was struck to maintain an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland while protecting the integrity of the EU’s single market.
Foster said Johnson should scrap the protocol, which she said was doing economic harm. “Not a single unionist party in Northern Ireland supports this unworkable protocol. Rather than protect the Belfast [Good Friday] Agreement and its successor agreements, the protocol has created societal division and economic harm,” she said.
Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard said the U.K. government should go further to implement the protocol. “What we need to see Boris Johnson doing is honoring and implementing agreements made, including the Irish protocol. We also need to see the British government fully implementing the Good Friday Agreement, including its provision for a unity referendum so that people can have their say on their own future.”
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