British Labour Party echoing Tories on cuts crisis 'high-handed' and 'unhelpful' – Sinn Féin

COMMENTS by the British Labour Party Shadow Secretary of State for the North of Ireland in which he mirrored Tory commentary that “we need leadership . . . making tough choices” by the North's parties on welfare cuts and austerity have been described by Sinn Féin National Chairperson Declan Kearney as “high-handed” and “unhelpful” at this time.

The British and Irish governments are meeting the five main Stormont parties on Tuesday for further talks on the crisis created by the Tory Government in London.

British Labour Party MP Ivan Lewis on Seamus McKee's Evening Extra programme on BBC Radio Ulster echoed the Tory mantra that “tough decisions are necessary and we need leadership from Northern Ireland's parties” (i.e. implement the Tory austerity regime).

The Labour spokesperson spoke patronisingly about the elected representatives in the North standing against austerity. He said the whole point of devolution is to show that “politicians in Northern Ireland are sufficiently grown-up, mature and responsible to make the right decisions about the best interests of Northern Ireland”.

He continued:

“No Government – even if [Labour] were in power – can afford to write blank cheques or be blackmailed by any particular party. There's got to be tough decisions made.”

Despite protesting that he wasn't going to “get into the blame game”, he went on to name Sinn Féin and the SDLP. It was Sinn Féin and the SDLP (joined by the Green Party) who signed a Petition of Concern to block the Welfare Bill from getting through the Assembly last week.

Ivan Lewis's comments prompted a sharp response from Sinn Féin's Declan Kearney.

“Against the backdrop of the growing austerity crisis in the North and [Tory Secretary of State] Theresa Villiers’s threats to escalate this situation into a full-blown political crisis, the remarks by Ivan Lewis were a poorly-judged intervention,” the Sinn Féin National Chairperson said.

“His criticism of Sinn Féin and other parties, and his choice of language, were both high-handed and totally unhelpful.

“Sinn Féin has an electoral mandate to oppose austerity in the North of Ireland and to defend the living standards of our people. 

“We will not be complicit with the Tory agenda of decimating public services and inflicting hardship and poverty on the most vulnerable from all sections of our community.”

He added:

“The Executive parties and civic society need to stand together to oppose austerity.  

“The labour movement must be central to that effort.

“As the Labour Party spokesperson on the North, Ivan Lewis should be supporting that strategy instead of acquiescing to the austerity cuts agenda of the new Tory Government.”