Mary Lou McDonald writes to Prime Minister after being 'excluded' from Belfast meeting saying 'there should be no repeat of this'

Mrs McDonald, who is in Belfast to meet Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, also rejected claims from the British Government that there was an issue around the “protocol” of meeting the Sinn Fein leader.

“It was a bad move, it was a bad decision,” Mrs McDonald said on Thursday morning.

“I’ve written to the British Prime Minister (Rishi Sunak) to air my concerns and I can only hope that lessons will be learned and we don’t have a repeat of this distraction politics which was most unhelpful.

“But we crack on today and we get some work done.

“The whole basis of progress in the North is always on the basis of mutual respect, inclusion and recognising people’s electoral mandates. That’s how it works. All of us who work closely in this know that.

“I would have reacted exactly the same way had another leader of another political party been excluded. It’s not acceptable. It’s not the way we do business.”

More on this story:

• 1 – Sinn Fein talks walk-out: 'If people want to be petulant it is up to them' says Ulster Unionist leader

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

• 3 – Unionists should catch up with others and start using human rights language more, MPs are told