PM begins Brexit meetings with NI political parties
Mrs May met with business and community leaders on the first day of her visit to Northern Ireland
Last updated 6th Feb 2019
Prime Minister Theresa May has arrived at Stormont House in Belfast for a series of meetings with Northern Ireland's political parties.
The first party to meet her is the Ulster Unionist Party.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann said his party had a "very clear message'' for the Prime Minister.
He said Mrs May will have to put direct rule government in place for Northern Ireland by March 30 if there is no extension of Article 50.
"We are not far from the 29th March, we as a party don't see a no deal as a positive situation or something that suits Northern Ireland or the UK,'' he said.
"We have asked her to look for an extension of Article 50, if she is not prepared to do that, and we are at a situation where the Executive and the Assembly isn't up and running again, she has to put something in place.
"She has to put direct rule in place come the 30th March because Northern Ireland needs political leadership and it needs political direction.
"So by the 29th March, if we are coming out with no deal with no Executive, we need direct rule for Northern Ireland, the manufacturing industry needs direction, our agrifood industry needs direction, we need some sort of political leadership in Northern Ireland.
"If the place behind me isn't fit to deliver that, then it has to be direct rule ministers.''
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long expressed her impatience at what she termed the lack of progress in the two years since the UK voted to leave the European Union.
She said she had a "very direct'' meeting with the Prime Minister.
"It's very clear from our perspective that the time for reiterating red lines and regurgitating reassurances has long gone,'' she said.
"What we need now, and the only lines we are interested in, are black and white on paper, an actual deal.
"That is the only thing that is actually going to reassure the public, it is the only thing that is going to reassure business and it is the only thing that is going to reassure those of us in politics who are concerned about what is going to happen next.
"We have around 50 days to go, so there is no time to be wasting and if we want to feel confident about the future then it requires the Prime Minister to take ownership of this, and it requires Parliament to wake up to the impending crisis in Northern Ireland in terms of how people actually go about their day-to-day lives.
"This is not about political philosophy, this is about people who live in Donegal and work in Derry, this is about people who live in Newry and work in Dundalk. This is about people being able to do their jobs, it's about workforce planning in our health service, in our schools, it's about all of those things. It's not about philosophical debates in Parliament."
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, who was third in to see Mrs May, said she needed to understand there was no alternative to the backstop.
"Last week's vote - the Brady amendment - was a betrayal of everything that was said before that, of the people of Northern Ireland and of all the political progress that we have made,'' he said.
"It just doesn't add up. The last time Theresa May was here she was expounding the values of the backstop and now we are in a situation where apparently the alternatives to the backstop are being explored.
"We made it very clear that there are no alternatives to the backstop.
"The bottom line is this - for the people of Northern Ireland, for our peace process, for all of our political progress, we need to remain within the customs union and single market in order to avoid a hard border.
"I think that will begin to be understood at all levels in the British parliament because they don't have an alternative. They talk about vague alternatives but there aren't any alternatives."
Theresa May has already had conversations with business and community leaders during her two-day trip to Belfast.
The premier has suggested that she is seeking "changes'' to the controversial backstop in her Brexit deal, rather than its total removal from the UK's EU Withdrawal Agreement.
In a speech in Belfast, the Prime Minister restated her "unshakeable'' commitment to avoiding a hard border in Ireland after Brexit, pledging: "The UK Government will not let that happen. I will not let that happen.''
But asked how she could convince the people of Northern Ireland to accept a Brexit deal which was stripped of the backstop, Mrs May said: "I'm not proposing to persuade people to accept a deal that doesn't contain that insurance policy for the future.
"What Parliament has said is that they believe there should be changes made to the backstop.''
It was in that light that she was working with MPs, the Irish government and the EU to find a way to meet the commitment to take Britain out of the EU on March 29 with a deal which avoided a hard Irish border, she said.
The Irish Government accused the Prime Minister of harbouring unrealistic expectations over the backstop.
The mechanism has polarised nationalists and unionists.
Many unionists believe the "insurance policy'' to preserve a frictionless frontier on the island of Ireland could threaten the integrity of the UK if Northern Ireland's customs regulations varied from Great Britain after Brexit.
Nationalists and many business leaders fear major disruption to trade and a hard border threatening peace process gains if no deal is struck and the backstop is not triggered.
Meanwhile, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will travel to Brussels for meetings with European Council president Donald Tusk and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.
Mrs May is due to visit the Belgian capital on Thursday, where she will hold a series of talks with key figures including Mr Tusk, Mr Juncker, European Parliament president Antonio Tajani and the European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt.
It will be the Prime Minister's first chance to hold first face-to-face talks in Brussels since the Withdrawal Agreement reached last November was rejected by the House of Commons.
And it comes a week after MPs voted for an amendment tabled by Conservative grandee Sir Graham Brady and backed by the Prime Minister which "requires the Northern Ireland backstop to be replaced with alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border''.
Mrs May will seek to secure changes which can persuade MPs to support her deal in a series of votes expected on February 14.
In Westminster, the working group bringing together senior Eurosceptic and former Remain-supporting Tories will continue efforts to agree alternatives to the backstop along the lines of the Malthouse Compromise.
Talks involving Conservatives including Brexiteers Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa Villiers, Steve Baker and Owen Paterson along with former Remainers Nicky Morgan and Damian Green will continue in Whitehall, chaired by Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay.
The first meeting on Monday was described as "detailed and constructive'' by the Brexit department.