Michael Gove’s ‘moral stain’ description of Peace Process disturbing from potential Prime Minister

SINN FÉIN MEP Matt Carthy has slammed what he termed the “warped fantasies” of Michael Gove, one of the leading candidates for leader of the British Conservative Party and Prime Minister.

Gove defended on Sunday his previous statements that the Good Friday Agreement was a “capitulation” and that the SAS and other British Army undercover units should have been allowed to continue with their controversial shoot-to-kill campaigns in the North of Ireland.

● British Army undercover death squad – Military Reaction Force 

Matt Carthy MEP said today:

“Michael Gove’s views in relation to Ireland are deeply disturbing for someone who seeks to become British Prime Minister. His warped fantasies of British military glory in the North of Ireland are completely anathema to the Peace Process.

“He derides the Good Friday Agreement upon which peace in Ireland is based, and he has been deeply opposed to the demilitarisation of society in the North which the people of all of Ireland strongly value and support.

“He has clearly said he believes that more killings by the British Army and RUC – and presumably by their proxies in the unionist paramilitary gangs, the UDA and UVF – would have been a better policy for the British Government to pursue in Ireland than political negotiations and peace.

“These remarks are particularly chilling considering the blood-stained record of the British Army in the North.”

The Irish MEP said Gove has also opposed the reform of policing and justice in the North and the idea of parity of esteem for the nationalist community.

“The people of Ireland will be horrified at these remarks from a man who seeks to be British Prime Minister, a position for which he is very clearly not fit.”