Sammy Wilson says re-set in relations with Ireland is about undoing Brexit or sacrificing Northern Ireland

Sammy Wilson MP says they warned people about the Labour PartySammy Wilson MP says they warned people about the Labour Party
Sammy Wilson MP says they warned people about the Labour Party
​Sammy Wilson has expressed concern at the government’s gushing new approach towards the Republic of Ireland.

Keir Starmer was in Dublin over the weekend where he was full of warmth towards Ireland, and reiterated his vow to reset relations with the Dublin. Hilary Benn, as reported opposite, was similarly warm about the Republic in a speech to the British-Irish Association in Oxford.

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Neither the prime minister nor his Northern Ireland secretary appeared to so much as hint at criticism of a state that refused to extradite IRA terrorists over the 30 years of the Troubles and which has given IRA murderers a de facto amnesty since the 1994 ceasefire, yet is suing Britain over its now suspended plan to offer a limited amnesty for historic killings. ​

The DUP politician Mr Wilson said that the new approach could “could be one or two things”. He told the Sunday Telegraph: “Northern Ireland could be used as the excuse for undoing Brexit. Or Northern Ireland could find itself further sacrificed, where the UK government then agrees with Europe, ‘Well, look, we’re not going to complain too much about what you do in Northern Ireland, your imposition of regulations in Northern Ireland, your disruption of trade in Northern Ireland, if you’re prepared to do deals with us on the things that matter to Great Britain’.”

The Sunday Telegraph also reported that the East Antrim MP said: “We warned the people of the United Kingdom that there was always a danger – despite what they said – with the Labour Party because they were never committed to Brexit. In fact, they were opposed to it. Keir Starmer, don’t forget, wanted a second referendum to try and undo it.

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“So the Labour Party has got form on this and it will be important to watch every move that they make very carefully.”

Meanwhile, the loyalist Jamie Bryson wrote on X: “The fiction of “upholding the Belfast Agreement” continues to be perpetuated by a weak UK Gov & aggressive Irish Gov. The core safeguards of the one sided Belfast Agreement have been disapplied to force an economic United Ireland on unionism.

"Let’s not pretend otherwise”