Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O'Neill and party leader Mary Lou McDonald give their thoughts on Westminster election.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00How's it going?
00:10Sorry.
00:12Are we supposed to wait for the third?
00:14Not sure.
00:16Michelle, Mary, can we just ask you, obviously, on the overall picture of Westminster,
00:20your reaction to these two leaderships?
00:23Well, obviously, it's been a Labour landslide, as the early poll tells us.
00:29I think for us, I don't think that's any surprise.
00:31I think everybody was predicting that.
00:33The polls have been saying that for some time.
00:35I think for us here, I think the politics of this election was very much about the politics here at home.
00:39It was about making the Executive and the Assembly work.
00:41I'm delighted to be here in Maher Fad this evening with Gavin Mallahan,
00:45who is our new MP, hopefully soon to be the third MP for Phil Ulster.
00:50We've pulled very well here in the position seat, but it's very early in the evening.
00:54A lot of tallying still to be done, a lot of votes still to be counted,
00:57but we're feeling very positive, we're feeling very good, just about how the vote has turned out,
01:01and also how the voters have engaged with our positive message.
01:04What about for Manchester? Are you confident there?
01:06I think it's very early.
01:08Are you nervous about that result?
01:10No, we're not nervous, no.
01:12I think we're feeling very confident that it's been a good poll for us across the board.
01:16But, look, it's very early in the evening.
01:18I think we're in for a long night, folks.
01:20We haven't even finished the tally yet, so I can't even give you any more comment.
01:23We'll just see what's happening.
01:25Can we just ask very quickly your reaction to the Labour landslide?
01:28Yes, I mean, I think it was evident for some time that that was going to be the case.
01:31What we're interested in now is in terms of our engagement with Labour,
01:34what that means for the people here, what that means for a good, positive relationship
01:38that perhaps we could have as a new executive with the Labour government.
01:42The Tories have not been any friends to the people here, haven't been any friends to public services,
01:46haven't been any friends to any household that's been dealing with the cost of living crisis.
01:50So I think that there's now yet an opportunity for us to work with Labour.
01:53Number one priority, but exactly, certainly, will be in terms of trying to get a better funding model
01:57so we can do better for public services.
01:59And I think also that there's the bigger national picture.
02:04Certainly there is a moment now for a reset in terms of relationships between Ireland and Britain,
02:10Dublin and London.
02:12So we very much hope that there will be a step change.
02:14We look forward to that.
02:16There are big issues on the direct horizon.
02:19I'm thinking of the legacy legislation, I'm thinking about our wider relationships,
02:25charting a course for the future, our collective relationships with the European Union.
02:30These are big questions and I hope that the new government under the leadership of Keir Starmer
02:35will come with a really constructive and uniquely, has a huge, huge mandate.
02:40And we hope and believe really ample political space to do really big, constructive things.
02:47We look forward to working with you.
02:49Thank you very much.