McDonald: Cost-of-living crisis is election’s big issue

Mrs McDonald was speaking as DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said that a Sinn Fein victory in next month’s Assembly election would lead to years of disputes over the calling of a border poll.

However, a Sinn Fein election candidate launch in the Titanic area of Belfast was instead dominated by issues around the cost of living and increased funding for the health service.

Mrs McDonald told the event: “The big priority for Sinn Fein after this election is to get back to work quickly so that the Executive can get money into people’s pockets to help with the rising cost of living, and to provide badly needed investment into our health services, and in particular to deal with waiting lists.

“Rising costs are putting a huge burden on workers and on families who are struggling to keep food on the table and to keep their homes heated.”

Mrs McDonald said that it was important that all issues were addressed in the election campaign, but added: “I think that people are focused on the here and now and the need to get by.

“I know that people are more than capable of being concerned about or committed to multiple things all at once.

“We are very conscious as a leadership setting out our stall that the cost of living now is the big, big issue for families.”

Sinn Fein remains on course to emerge from the election as Northern Ireland’s biggest party, a new opinion poll indicates.

The party’s popularity has risen to 27%, extending its lead over the DUP to almost seven points, according to the survey of voter intentions.

The findings of the Institute of Irish Studies-University of Liverpool/Irish News poll are broadly in line with other surveys over recent weeks and months, all of which have put Sinn Fein in front and with a significant gap between it and the second-placed DUP.

Of the other parties, the cross-community Alliance Party looks set to build on recent strong electoral showings.

Despite a one-point drop from February, the poll still places it as the third most popular party at 14.6%.

According to the survey, the UUP comes in fourth in the popular vote, on 13.5% – down a half point from February.

The SDLP, in fifth, is up slightly on its standing seven weeks ago, rising from 9.9% to 10.3%.