Sinn Fein urging DUP leader elect to 'commit to real powersharing'

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald is calling for a 'real partnership' with her party at Stormont.

The republican leader claimed that a DUP "failure to accept rights and equality'' was a contributory factor in the "political storm'' that has hit unionism in recent days.

"The outworking of Brexit and the decision of the DUP to support it, the inevitable disaster of the post-election pact with the English Tories and the loss of the unionist majority in Stormont have created a political landscape which many within the leadership of the DUP seem incapable of reconciling themselves to,'' she said.

Mrs McDonald said she took "no comfort'' from the internal difficulties the DUP has endured in the last week.

"We don't seek to humiliate or profit from the dysfunction within the DUP,'' she told party faithful at a Belfast hotel.

In a keynote speech in the Balmoral Hotel in west Belfast, Mary Lou McDonald told fellow Sinn Fein members:

"Yesterday I spoke with the new DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson and we will meet next week.

"The question facing him is whether he is up for real partnership, real powersharing, for political institutions that deliver? If the answer to those questions is yes then he will find a willing partner in the Sinn Fein team under (deputy First Minister) Michelle O'Neill.

"A partner who wants to get on with the task of delivering better public services, tackling the hospital waiting lists, building decent homes and managing the economy out of Covid.

"A partner who will continue to give voice to those who have none, and who will work across party lines in both the Assembly and the Executive in achieving rights for women, Irish language speakers, newcomer communities and every section of the people who live here.''