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Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s voice is being heard \u201cloud and clear\u201d despite pledging not to take its Westminster seats, the party leader said.<\/p>\nSinn F\u00e9in\u2019s voice is being heard \u201cloud and clear\u201d despite pledging not to take its Westminster seats, the party leader said.<\/p>\n
Mary Lou McDonald said it was the election of a generation due to the challenge posed to Northern Ireland by Brexit, but rejected criticism of her abstentionist policy.<\/p>\n
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood is bidding to usurp Sinn F\u00e9in in Derry and has vowed to go into the British House of Commons and press for a second referendum if he wins the close-fought Foyle seat.<\/p>\n
Ms McDonald launched her party\u2019s manifesto in the city today.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cThe farce of a notion that you go into the house of chaos at Westminster and even your wits with Jacob Rees-Mogg as he reclines on the green benches and snoozes off is fanciful.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also a little dishonest \u2013 I don\u2019t think we should be misleading people in this election because the stakes are very high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms McDonald argued her party\u2019s \u201crelentless representation\u201d had been heard in Dublin, Brussels and Washington DC and helped inform the EU\u2019s negotiating stance on Brexit.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland voted Remain by 56% to 44%.<\/p>\n
Many unionists argue that those who voted against Brexit did not vote for a united Ireland.<\/p>\n
Unionism is united in opposition to extra customs regulations between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK due to the departure from the EU, the DUP said at its manifesto launch last week.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in has sought to characterize its rivals as architects of Brexit.<\/p>\n
It is running John Finucane, the son of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane, in North Belfast against DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds in a tight race.<\/p>\n
Ms McDonald said the unionist party\u2019s former leader at Westminster had pushed his \u201ccrazy\u201d Brexit agenda as a badge of honor.<\/p>\n
She claimed the North’s politicians could not go into Westminster and stop Brexit, pointing to the DUP\u2019s record.<\/p>\n
Ms McDonald said: \u201cThat matter has been decided by the English public and will be decided and shaped in the first instance by their elected representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DUP had an arrangement to support the minority Conservative Government in key votes but helped thwart Theresa May\u2019s efforts to push her proposed Brexit deal with the EU through Westminster over concerns about the border backstop.<\/p>\n
The party is opposed to Boris Johnson\u2019s proposed plan, which the British Prime Minister argues would scrap the backstop.<\/p>\n
It would impose extra regulation on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland to prevent a hard land border on the island with the Republic of Ireland.<\/p>\n
The Sinn F\u00e9in president said Brexit has had the effect of uniting improbable allies amid \u201creal threats\u201d to people\u2019s livelihoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the face of that threat we have come together, set aside very significant political differences and said in this election it is important that people use and lend and borrow votes from others to ensure that \u2013 loud and clear again \u2013 it is heard that the north has not consented to Brexit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe insist that our island and communities are protected.\u201d<\/p>\n