THE Queen’s speech has been pushed back two days and delayed until next Wednesday as Theresa May desperately tries to convince Northern Ireland’s DUP to prop up her minority government.
Yesterday May met with the region’s political parties as she tried to get power-sharing in Stormont sorted.
But Sinn Fein, who will not share power with the DUP while Arlene Foster is in charge, accused the Prime Minister of not honouring the Good Friday agreement.
Two days ago former Prime Minister John Major warned that a Tory-DUP deal could spark fresh violence in Northern Ireland.
Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement agreed in 1998, the UK Government must remain neutral in its dealings with both sides of the political divide in Northern Ireland.
Speaking on the doorstep of Number 10, Gerry Adams, the party’s president, said: “We told her very directly that she was in breach of the Good Friday Agreement and we itemised those matters in which she was in default in relation to that agreement.”
He also said there was no chance of Sinn Fein’s seven MPs taking their seats in the Commons. “We’re Irish republicans, we have just been elected on a certain mandate. That mandate is that we won’t interfere in British affairs, we won’t take an oath of allegiance to the English Queen — no harm to her.”
He added: “You folk here made enough mess of our own elections, make enough mess of your own governments, make enough mess of your own affairs. We want you out of our affairs and we’ll try to sort out these matters as Irishmen and women on the island of Ireland.”
Despite the lack of a deal with the DUP, May’s minority government has said they will start the first round of formal Brexit talks on Monday. Those discussion are likely to focus on the UK’s so-called divorce bill, estimated to be as much as €100bn, as well as the rights of EU citizens currently living in Britain and UK nationals living on the continent.
But the Tories have been warned to cool their heels. Speaking last night Scottish Brexit minister Michael Russel said the election should be interpreted “as a rejection of the Tory plans for a hard Brexit. “
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