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Sinn F\u00e9in MP John Finucane said Brexit has \u201cchanged forever\u201d the debate around a united Ireland as he urged Dublin to prepare the ground for a border poll.<\/p>\nSinn F\u00e9in MP John Finucane said Brexit has \u201cchanged forever\u201d the debate around a united Ireland as he urged Dublin to prepare the ground for a border poll.<\/p>\n
Mr Finucane, who unseated the DUP\u2019s Westminster leader, Nigel Dodds, in Belfast North at the general election, said the debate around a border poll was now \u201cmainstream\u201d.<\/p>\n
But he added that any move towards a vote should be conducted in a calm and measured way, avoiding what he said were the mistakes of the Brexit referendum.<\/p>\n
He told the PA news agency: \u201cI don\u2019t think that anybody has anything to fear from the debate because one thing I think we can point to from Brexit \u2013 perhaps perversely \u2013 as a positive is how not to run a major constitutional referendum.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople need to be very clear as to what they are voting for and what they are voting against.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to achieve a new Ireland because of a lie on the side of a bus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to achieve a new Ireland by people being misinformed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it needs to be a very well-informed and reasoned debate and for that we need the Irish Government to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Brexit vote in 2016 \u201cchanged forever the conversation around a new Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a conversation that is now as mainstream as I can remember it in my lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Finucane said his election success showed a significant change in the politics of the constituency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat played out against the backdrop of Brexit and I think people in North Belfast, as was the way of people right across Ireland, have watched in horror really as Brexit has unfolded over the past three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cNigel Dodds very much owned Brexit \u2013 he was the head of the DUP here in Westminster, he was part of the Vote Leave campaign, and I think that people were very angry at that style of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s seven MPs do not take up their seats in the UK Parliament at Westminster.<\/p>\n
But as the party\u2019s MPs gathered at Westminster, West Belfast MP Paul Maskey said: \u201cWe are here to raise the issue of Irish unity and to raise issues for our constituents as well.\u201d<\/p>\n