TUV asks why Mary Lou McDonald feels entitled to be part of talks about NI when she has 'no mandate' here

Mr Allister also highlighted the fact that his own party, the TUV, was not invited to the talks, after polling “just marginally behind the SDLP”.

The talks were scheduled to be between the leaders of the five biggest parties (SF, DUP, Alliance, UUP and SDLP) and James Cleverly, the Tory government’s foreign minister.

Sinn Fein’s president Mary Lou McDonald said she had travelled up from Dublin to be part of the talks, but realised she had not been invited; the invitation instead went to the party’s regional leader Michelle O’Neill.

As a result, Sinn Fein refused to attend.

Then as a result of that, the SDLP also refused to attend.

According to the DUP, the fact that Mrs McDonald had not been invited was a case of diplomatic niceties; since Mr Cleverly has yet to meet Ireland’s foreign minister, protocol implies that it would not be proper to meet Mrs McDonald – the leader of the opposition in Ireland – before meeting him.

In a statement afterwards, Mr Allister said: “On the decision not to invite Mary Lou McDonald, one wishes that the UK government would finally take a stand and refuse to grant a politician without any mandate in Northern Ireland a place at talks at which the affairs of this part of the Kingdom is discussed.

"Sinn Fein often talk about their mandate. The reality is that not a single person in Northern Ireland voted for Ms McDonald so she should not be surprised that that she wasn’t invited to meet our Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary.

"We learn, however, that she was not invited not on a point of principle but because the UK wanted to avoid upsetting politicians in the Republic due to diplomatic protocol.

“Unionists need to take a lesson from this. Unionist representatives have been far too slack about disregarding protocol and engaging with the Irish Government on matters which are internal to Northern Ireland.

"The three strand approach insisted on at the time of the Belfast Agreement by David Trimble which excluded Dublin from discussions on the internal affairs of our Province has been disregarded in recent years.

"This was particularly clear when it came to the New Decade New Approach Agreement which was produced as a joint UK / Irish Government paper.

“Furthermore, it is time that Unionists made it clear that only those who have a mandate from the people of Northern Ireland should have any say in talks which are supposedly called to seek the views of our representatives. We don’t need a Dubliner’s input at such events, now or in the future.”

And regarding the fact the TUV were not invited, he said: “While the SDLP – ever ready to operate in a supporting role to Sinn Fein – were quick to pull out of meeting the Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary today over the alleged exclusion of Sinn Fein, it was telling that there was no demand from any of those invited to the talks to hear from TUV, a party which secured almost 66,000 votes in the Assembly election, amounting to 7.6% of the total poll and putting us just marginally behind the SDLP.”

The SDLP had a weak result in the May election, taking just eight seats and 9.1% of the vote (down by almost three percentage points on the last time round).

As a consequence, the SDLP did not have enough MLAs to entitle the party to a seat at the Executive table.

This put it in the same bracket as the TUV, which – with only one MLA – also lacks an entitlement to be part of the Executive.

More from this reporter:

– Irish state involved in secret legacy talks ‘as partners of UK’

– Lord Empey: Sinn Fein claim that it negotiated Belfast Agreement absolute nonsense