The DUP “championing the hardest Brexit” has led to much of the north’s difficulties in recent years, it has been claimed during a General Election debate.
Alliance leader Naomi Long made the accusation during the UTV debate on Sunday evening, in which representatives of the north’s five largest parties took part.
Ms Long, who is standing against DUP leader Gavin Robinson in East Belfast, hit out at his party, stating: “They delivered the chaos of Brexit, they delivered collapse of the Assembly, they delivered a very negative outlook from Northern Ireland.”
The Alliance leader said the fault of post-Brexit problems lay at the door of the DUP, for not only campaigning for a UK exit from the EU but also by “championing the hardest Brexit”.
“It’s unfair I think to create a problem and then expect everyone else to take responsibility for the consequences of it while you live in denial,” she told Mr Robinson.
Mr Robinson, meanwhile, denied his party oversold the deal with the British government to revive power-sharing at Stormont. His predecessor, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, claimed the deal effectively removed the Irish Sea Border.
“It’s very clear the roadmap is there, we have attained progress when others either did not care or did not try and we are standing on our record of achieving for the people who elect us,” he said.
SDLP leader and Foyle candidate Colum Eastwood also criticised Sinn Féin for failing to take their seats at Westminster.
“If you’re asking MPs from across the political spectrum in Westminster, they wouldn’t really know who Sinn Fein’s MPs are,” he said.
North Belfast Sinn Féin candidate, John Finucane, addressed comments made by former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that boosting support for a new Ireland required an apology from the republican movement for IRA violence.
He said issues around forgiveness should be detached from the debate on a new Ireland.
“That’s a separate conversation, it’s a personal conversation, and it’s something that is very emotive and I would say should be divorced at the right time from this conversation, which is about looking towards the future,” he said.
UUP Lagan Valley candidate Robbie Butler said both the DUP and Sinn Féin had left the north’s electorate suffering “the consequences of political failure” with their moves to collapse power-sharing for two lengthy periods over the last seven years.
Meanwhile, in a separate interview with the Press Association, Gavin Robinson has claimed support for a united Ireland has not risen since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Asked to predict what the future might be for Northern Ireland in 50 years’ time, he replied: “I hope it will be at peace with itself. But I can guarantee you it’ll be part of the Union.
“We can only look back over the last 25 years that despite the enthusiastic calls for a united Ireland from some, they haven’t grown the percentage share of nationalist support in Northern Ireland one bit in the last 25 years.”
Mr Robinson said there was a “difference between political unionism and those who are pro-Union”.
“And there’s a burgeoning centre that don’t think every day about the constitutional question but are pleased and content to be in the Union, recognise that the Union works for them,” he added.
