‘Not wise’ to invite Mary Lou McDonald to NI Protocol meeting — Heaton-Harris

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris speaks to the media outside Hillsborough Castle after a meeting with Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin (Brian Lawless/PA)

It would not have been wise to invite Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald to a political meeting about the Northern Ireland Protocol because she is a “representative of a parliament in an EU member state”, Britain's Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said.

The row over the exclusion of the Sinn Féin president from a political meeting with British foreign secretary James Cleverly rumbled on as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste Micheal Martin and UK Labour leader Keir Starmer were all holding talks in Northern Ireland as part of efforts to resolve the dispute over the post-Brexit trading arrangements.