Widespread dismay at sacking of Julian Smith, man who helped restore power-sharing

Mr Smith lost his job as Prime Minister Boris Johnson carried out a major reshuffle of his top team at Downing Street.

He has been replaced by former Tory Party chairman Brandon Lewis.

The move comes just weeks after the former Tory chief whip had been instrumental in delivering the power-sharing deal which saw the Northern Ireland Assembly restored following three years of deadlock.

There has been widespread shock across the political spectrum at the news.

Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster praised Mr Smith for his “incredible dedication” to the role.

She tweeted: “Spoke with Julian Smith a short time ago to thank him for his help in getting devolution restored. We may not have always agreed (we did sometimes) but his dedication to the role was incredible. Best wishes to him and his family. Always welcome in Fermanagh.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar hailed Mr Smith as “one of Britain’s finest politicians of our time”.

Irish premier Mr Varadkar also said: “In eight months as Secretary of State, Julian you helped to restore powersharing in Stormont, secured an agreement with us to avoid a hard border, plus marriage equality.

There has been some speculation that Downing Street reportedly felt left out of the loop by Mr Smith over the terms of the deal he was negotiating last month in the lead up to the restoration of the assembly.

And there are concerns in Tory circles that the agreement includes an investigation into alleged crimes by soldiers during the Troubles.

But those close to Mr Smith insisted that Number 10 and the Prime Minister had been kept fully informed about the terms of the Stormont arrangement.

“There was a write-round of Cabinet ministers,” a source told the Press Association, pointing out that Mr Smith travelled back from Belfast on January 6 to personally brief Mr Johnson.

There had been a series of memos sent back and forth between Mr Smith’s team and Number 10 and it was “absolute crap” to suggest they had been blindsided, they said.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood had harsh words for the PM, calling the sacking a “strategic error” by the Conservative leader.

Thanking Mr Smith for his work since being appointed last July, he said: “It defies belief that, after the successful restoration of power-sharing following a three-year collapse, Julian Smith’s reward is a Cabinet Office P45.

“It tells you all you need to know about Boris Johnson’s attitude to the north that he would sack the most successful secretary of state in a decade. He is at best indifferent.”

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said the party wants to meet with whoever replaces Julian Smith as Northern Ireland secretary “urgently”.

Speaking in Dublin on Thursday, she said: “Obviously for us, whoever the Secretary of State is, we will deal with them. It does help if you have some level of continuity in terms of the person you are dealing with. We had very intensive contact with Julian Smith in the re-establishment of the powersharing government and there are very many outstanding issues, not least on the issue of legacy where the British system has dragged its feet.”

Margaret McGuckin of the Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse (SAVIA) described Mr Smith – who supported a bill that fast tracked compensation for abuse survivors through the Commons – a “father figure” to her support group.

“We watched him speaking in the House of Commons and I was in tears. He was in tears with us. That man felt our pain and it showed that day in Westminster. He cried our tears.

“And for me who has to put on that mask every day just to get through life, my heart was bursting with joy and pain to believe that there was a man, an authority figure, who kept his word,” she said.

Ms McGuckin added: “We were at our wits end because former Secretaries of State chose to do nothing and our own government in Northern Ireland left us hanging – and that was three years after the Hart Inquiry. It was heartbreaking for all of us and so many of our people passed away in that time.

“Then along came Julian Smith and we thought we would be in for the same thing. This was a man with a warm heart and a caring attitude. Even his demeanour was something different. I can say that as someone who was always against authority because of what was done to us by authority figures as abuse victims.

“But I felt that this was a man we could trust – and I don’t say that lightly.”