Sinn Féin expects British government to override protocol, says O'Neill

Michelle O'Neill says British prime minister's actions further the position of the DUP which is to block a Northern Ireland executive being formed

Conor Murphy checks his watch as the Sinn Féin delegation including Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill arrive at Hillsborough Castle to meet with Boris Johnston on Monday. Picture: Alan Lewis

Michelle O’Neill says her party expects that the British government will override the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The Sinn Féin vice president said this morning that after her “tough meeting” with British prime minister Boris Johnson in Belfast yesterday, she is disappointed that the British government continues to placate the Democratic Unionist Party. 

Ms O'Neill said nobody could “trust a word” from either the prime minister or secretary of state Brandon Lewis.

“I believe what happened yesterday was part of a set of choreographed and disgraceful set of events designed to get cover to the DUP, that’s unacceptable,” Ms O'Neill said on Morning Ireland.

“People voted for us to be able put money in the pockets of workers and so many other things.

"To make matters worse today, Boris Johnson will set out legislation that will break international law and that’s a dangerous place for anybody to be in, a place of uncertainty, economic uncertainty, continued furthered instability.”

Ms O’Neill lambasted the British government and warned that the people of Northern Ireland would suffer.

“I think that his actions actually further the position of the DUP, which is to block an executive being formed, to continue to undermine the protocol which gives us protections against the worst excesses of Brexit, which Boris Johnson himself actually negotiated."

They intend to go down this route, to override an international agreement and disapply parts of the protocol.

The Sinn Féin vice-president said: “Essentially what they're saying that this is a parallel process and alongside this, talk to the EU, that’s not the way to conduct business.

“I think that's very dangerous territory because all sorts of further instability and further economic uncertainty and potentially at some stage we could see retaliation from the EU side, and then the North is cornered in the middle and we become a pawn in this game of chicken and that’s not acceptable.”