Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

keeping it unreal

UK government suggestion that Sinn Féin is 'strongly influencing' Brexit negotiations greeted with derision

Brexit secretary David Davis made the claims at a conference in London yesterday.

Cabinet meeting David Davis Kirsty O'Connor / PA Images Kirsty O'Connor / PA Images / PA Images

THE SUGGESTION BY Britain’s Brexit secretary that a ‘change in government’ and the ‘strong influence’ of Sinn Féin have hampered exit negotiations has been broadly panned this morning.

Speaking at conference in London yesterday, David Davis said that he had “not anticipated” the “tough” approach to negotiations adopted by Leo Varadkar, according to a report in the Times Ireland Edition.

“We had a change of government, south of the border, and with a quite a strong influence from Sinn Féin, and that had an impact in terms of the approach,” he said.

When this train of thought was queried by a member of the audience (the Irish government hasn’t changed custodians in seven years) Davis replied: “Well you had a change of leader or a change in taoiseach.” “They’ve (Sinn Féin) been playing a strong political role which they haven’t done historically, that I hadn’t foreseen.”

Davis’s comments echo those often made in hardcore pro-Brexit circles in the UK – that is, that a strong Republican influence has been brought to bear on negotiations from the Irish side. However, such thoughts are rarely expressed via the British cabinet.

The statement has been greeted with derision this morning.

‘Wildly inaccurate’

“The suggestion that electoral issues in Ireland impact ongoing negotiations is wildly inaccurate,” Fine Gael’s spokesman on EU affairs Senator Neale Richmond said.

Anyone who knows Fine Gael and Sinn Féin knows they don’t compete for the same vote, and have wildly different ideologies.

He added that he would not expect such claims (“a very common line from the Brexit wing of the Conservative party”) to be made by a member of the Cabinet.

“I wouldn’t have expected it from David Davis,” he said.

It shows that the average British MP doesn’t understand the nuances of the peace process. It’s very disappointing, completely inaccurate, and certainly not happening.

Meanwhile, UK Labour’s Owen Smith, formerly the shadow secretary for Northern Ireland, dismissed Davis’s words as “complete rubbish”:

Your Voice
Readers Comments
97
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

    Leave a commentcancel