UK PM Starmer meets Northern Ireland’s leaders

United Kingdom Prime Minister, Keir Starmer made his first visit to Northern Ireland on Monday, with hopes high on both sides of the political divide that relations will improve after years of Brexit turmoil.

Starmer, whose centre-left Labour party won last week’s UK general election, briefly met the leaders of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive at the Stormont parliament buildings early on Monday.

He held talks with First Minister Michelle O’Neill, of the pro-Irish unity Sinn Fein party, and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), as he continues a whistlestop tour of the UK.

The Labour leader was due in Cardiff later on Monday, where he will meet party allies who head the devolved administration there.

In Northern Ireland, both main parties expect Starmer to bring greater stability and closer engagement, as well as patch up relations with Dublin.

“There’s cautious optimism about the new government across the board, but for different reasons,” James Pow, a politics lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, told AFP.

At last Thursday’s election, Sinn Fein held on to its seven seats to become the largest Northern Ireland party in the UK parliament in London.

It overtook its main DUP rival, which lost three of its eight seats, two of them to rival unionist parties.

AFP

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