Sinn Fein denies Conor Burns claim that it plans to boycott Stormont Executive if Protocol Bill passes

The party was reacting to remarks from Conor Burns, who had given an interview to Andrew Marr on London's LBC Radio during the week.

The Protocol Bill would empower UK government ministers to over-ride bits of the Protocol, but is currently in limbo in Parliament, with no clear idea of when – or if – it will become law.

Mr Burns – who was born in Belfast but moved to England as a boy –served as a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office from September 2021 to September 2022, when he was removed from office thanks to an unfounded complaint of sexual misconduct (of which he has since been cleared).

"Let me say something that, I'm now out of ministerial office for the moment, able to say," he told LBC.

"The Protocol Bill – I understand its objectives.

"But if its aim is restored devolved government in Northern Ireland, the Protocol Bill will not take you there.

"Yes, the Protocol Bill deals with the concerns of the DUP. But Sinn Fein have been very clear that if the Protocol Bill becomes law, and the Protocol is over-ridden, they would regard that as economic harm to Northern Ireland and they would not serve in the Executive.

"Conor Murphy was incredibly clear at that at the British Irish Association Conference in Pembroke College in September."

The British Irish Association is a registered charity, based in Oxford, which seeks to "bring together a wide range of people – senior politicians and government officials, business managers, academics, faith leaders, writers and artists, commentators and community workers – to discuss matters of shared concern".

Richard Bullick, the former DUP special advisor, said of Mr Burns' remarks that "if true, [it] makes Sinn Fein criticism of the DUP sound completely hypocritical".

The News Letter put all of this to Sinn Fein.

It responded simply: "It's absolute nonsense."

It issued a statement from Michelle O’Neill today saying: “Since day one, I have been ready to form an Executive to work with other parties and the two governments to get the job done and deliver the change that people voted for in May.

“I again appeal to the DUP to get back round the Executive.”

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