Lord Empey hits out at NIO border poll comments - but says NI won't follow Sinn Fein into an uncertain future
A former Ulster Unionist leader who was involved in negotiating the Belfast Agreement says comments by NIO minister Fleur Anderson on a border poll were “ill-advised” and have sent the Sinn Fein spin machine “into overdrive”.
Lord Empey was reacting to comments from the Labour minister in which she said opinion polls would be used to assess whether a border poll should be called.
However, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has distanced itself from her remarks, saying the responsibility “sits solely” with the Secretary of State.
Before the general election, Hilary Benn had warned about the use of polling to judge public opinion – saying it would encourage attempts to sway the surveys.
Lord Reg Empey told the News Letter: “Following the ill-advised comments from NIO Minister Fleur Anderson that opinion polls may be used to determine the timing of a future Border Poll, the Sinn Fein spin machine has gone into overdrive to proclaim that there is now unstoppable momentum for such an event.’
“The truth is the very opposite of that. Many years ago, Sinn Fein was saying that 2016 was to be the date for ‘Irish unity’ and that date came and went”.
He added: “The attempts of recent years to ‘reach out’ to those on the edge of unionism and to hold a ‘conversation about unity’ has suffered a huge and unexpected blow in the last few weeks. A pincer movement between Taoiseach Micheal Martin who claimed the reconciliation between the people of Ireland north and south was necessary pre-requisite to a poll and President Donald Trump’s tariff threat to the Irish economy has served to establish two very different reasons why a border poll is not necessary and indeed unlikely to be successful”.
Lord Empey said with the uncertainty created by Trump’s economic policy casting a shadow in boardrooms all around the world, and with Ireland having the fourth largest trade surplus with America in the world, the USA is “unlikely to let Dublin off the hook”.
He said he didn’t see the people of Northern Ireland taking “a leap in the dark” and following Sinn Fein into an uncertain future.