Unionists slam Martina Anderson’s European Parliament speech

Speaking during a debate in Strasbourg the morning after Prime Minister Theresa May suffered a historic defeat over her Brexit deal in the House of Commons, Ms Anderson said: “No positive resolution for Ireland will ever come from a British parliament – it never has and it never will.”

Quoting Connolly – one of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising – she told fellow MEPs: “He said ‘the British government has no right in Ireland; never had any right in Ireland and never can have any right in Ireland’.”

She went on to say that a provision exists within the Belfast Agreement that could result in a border poll on Irish reunification, adding: “One vital aspect of the Good Friday Agreement presents a route out of this mess for Ireland. It states that once the British secretary of state considers that there has been demonstrable and attitudal change she will trigger a border poll on Irish unity. There has been demonstrable change.”

UUP MEP Jim Nicholson told the News Letter: “It doesn’t take much for the mask to slip. Republicanism may find this hard to take but the Belfast Agreement they claim must be protected ‘in all its parts’ through Brexit talks, reaffirms NI’s position as an integral part of the UK for as long as its people wish to remain so.

“Martina Anderson couldn’t have done a better job of showing members of the European Parliament how little she really thinks of the Belfast Agreement.”

TUV leader Jim Allister said: “She has demonstrated that SF’s supposed commitment to the principle of consent is an absolute fraud.”