Arabic version: الحزب الوحدوي الديمقراطي يمنع أونيل من حضور قمة اقتصادية في غلاسكو
According to BBC News, Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill has been blocked by the DUP from attending the National Economic Council in Glasgow, an economic summit involving Prime Minister Andy Burnham. O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly had both been invited to Friday’s meeting alongside other devolved leaders.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said Little-Pengelly would not take part in joint engagements with O’Neill, and that permission would not be granted for the first minister to attend alone. The decision followed unionist anger over Sinn Féin’s involvement in protests that prevented an Orange Order march in Portadown from travelling along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road.
O’Neill called the move “reckless and irresponsible” and said it meant people in Northern Ireland “will not be represented”. She described it as a “reactive stunt” driven by the DUP’s internal pressures and electoral problems. Robinson said O’Neill’s “arrogance will have consequences”, while O’Neill called his comments “arrogant and supremacist”. She said she would attend the Assembly on Monday with party colleagues and continue “showing up every day for people”.
Little-Pengelly said concerns about O’Neill’s conduct, and the “anger and hurt” felt by many people across Northern Ireland, could not be ignored. She said she had requested a separate meeting with the prime minister so that Northern Ireland’s interests, including the Executive’s budgetary and funding challenges, could be represented directly. The National Economic Council was revived over the summer to encourage collaboration between the nations and regions.
The dispute has increased pressure on the DUP from unionist rivals and figures within the party. DUP MP Carla Lockhart quit the party’s officer board last week over its response, while assembly members Diane Forsythe and Maurice Bradley have called for O’Neill to be removed from office. Alliance leader Naomi Long said blocking attendance at the meeting put party interests ahead of Northern Ireland’s economic future; Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows said the decision “punishes Northern Ireland, not Michelle O’Neill”.
