Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:

“While the SDLP – ever ready to operate in a supporting role to Sinn Fein – were quick to pull out of meeting the Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary today over the alleged exclusion of Sinn Fein it was telling that there was no demand from any of those invited to the talks to hear from TUV, a party which secured almost 66,000 votes in the Assembly election, amounting to 7.6% of the total poll and putting us just marginally behind the SDLP.

“On the decision not to invite Mary Lou McDonald, one wishes that the U.K. Government would finally take a stand and refuse to grant a politician without any mandate in Northern Ireland a place at talks at which the affairs of this part of the Kingdom is discussed. Sinn Fein often talk about their mandate. The reality is that not a single person in Northern Ireland voted for Ms McDonald so she should not be surprised that that she wasn’t invited to meet our Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary. We learn, however, that she was not invited not on a point of principle but because the U.K. wanted to avoid upsetting politicians in the Republic due to diplomatic protocol.

“Unionists need to take a lesson from this. Unionist representatives have been far too slack about disregarding protocol and engaging with the Irish Government on matters which are internal to Northern Ireland. The three strand approach insisted on at the time of the Belfast Agreement by David Trimble which excluded Dublin from discussions on the internal affairs of our Province has been disregarded in recent years. This was particularly clear when it came to the New Decade New Approach Agreement which was produced as a joint U.K. / Irish Government paper.

“Furthermore, it is time that Unionists made it clear that only those who have a mandate from the people of Northern Ireland should have any say in talks which are supposedly called to seek the views of our representatives. We don’t need a Dubliner’s input at such events, now or in the future”.