‘British Government allowing process to drift’ – Murphy

The British Government are allowing the political process in the North to drift because of their reliance on the DUP, Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy has said.

Speaking from a party planning event in County Cavan, the Sinn Féin negotiator urged both governments to honour their responsibilities to previous agreements and the rights of citizens.

Speaking to Newry Times, he commented, “The British Government, in looking after its own interests in Westminster, is reliant on the DUP to keep them in power and therefore they have adopted a policy of drift which has essentially seen nothing happen in our process from February right through to now.

“There is no plan, and despite the best efforts of some of the local parties, there is no clear idea from the British Government as to how they would get a talks process back together or how we would get the institutions working again.

He continued, “Clearly we want to see the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement up and running and we want both governments to play a leading role in trying to get them restored.

“However, if it is the case that we cannot get the DUP to deal with the rights issues, to deal with the legacy issues, to deal with the implementation of matters previously agreed then both governments as co-guarantors of the Agreement have to take responsibility.

“They must ensure that people who live in the six counties are entitled to the same rights as those in the 26 counties or indeed those who live in Britain.

Murphy added, “It is not acceptable for the British Government to continue this policy of doing nothing and drift. We want to see – and the people that we represent want to see – the institutions back up and working again.”

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Posted by Newry Times News on Sep 6 2018. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry