Heaton-Harris tells O’Neill to focus on public services not border poll

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris speaking to the media at the Northern Ireland Assembly, Parliament Buildings in Belfast (Liam McBurney/PA)

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill should focus on improving public services rather than raising the issue of a ballot on reunification, Chris Heaton-Harris suggested.

The Northern Ireland Secretary dismissed the prospect of a border poll after Ms O’Neill claimed one could be held in the next 10 years.

Mr Heaton-Harris said the conditions for a poll were “definitely not met at this time” and played down the prospect of a referendum within a decade.

Stormont Assembly — First Minister Michelle O’Neill has raised the prospect of a border poll in the next 10 years (Liam McBurney/PA)

“I really don’t think that’s going to happen but as Secretary of State I am the person responsible in Government to check whether the conditions for that have been met,” he told LBC.

“They’re definitely not met at this point in time, and I would suggest that actually top of the in-tray for an incoming Executive has to be things like public sector pay, the health service, which needs massive transformation here, funding on education and a whole host of other things that actually all people in Northern Ireland from both communities truly care about.”

He said he would have to be “confident” that there was a potential majority of people in Northern Ireland “who would like to depart from their current constitutional status” for the conditions to be met.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson criticised the Sinn Fein First Minister for focusing on the “divisive” issue.

“She says she wants to be a First Minister for all, well that means the unionist community,” he told Sky News.

He said the Executive must work on the basis that a majority of people in Northern Ireland support the union.

“Let’s move forward together. Let’s focus on the issues that really matter to people. They’re not interested in a divisive border poll,” Sir Jeffrey said.

On Sunday Ms O’Neill, the first nationalist to assume the post of First Minister, said: “I believe we are in a decade of opportunity and there are so many things that are changing.

“All the old norms, the nature of this estate, the fact that a nationalist/republican was never supposed to be First Minister.

“This all speaks to that change.”