Police chief has lost the confidence of unionists – Sir Jeffrey Donaldson

By Rebecca Black, PA

Northern Ireland’s chief constable has lost the confidence of the unionist community, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said.

The DUP leader stopped short of calling for Simon Byrne to resign but said he would make his view clear to the PSNI chief when he meets him on Thursday.

Unionists have reacted with anger to proposals to transform policing in south Armagh.

They include the closure of Crossmaglen police station, a suggestion to resite memorials to fallen officers from public view, and closer working with An Garda Siochana.

Those are among 50 recommendations in a report which found the PSNI lacks credibility in the area and officers generally regard the community with suspicion.

Nationalists, including local Sinn Fein MLA Conor Murphy, welcomed the report, describing the proposed reforms as long overdue.

Speaking earlier today he discussed the elements of the report which propose shutting the heavily-fortified station in Crossmaglen.

He said: "The police estate, a lot of it is not fit for purpose. They're going to end up disposing of buildings and trying to create new buildings and trying to rationalise that part of the service because that's a drain on the resources.

"And the buildings aren't fit for their purposes never mind the community's purposes."

(Conor Murphy said that some PSNI stations are no longer fit for purpose)

During a visit to Portadown on Wednesday, Sir Jeffrey said: “We are very concerned by the proposals in that report. I will be meeting the chief constable tomorrow, we have some very pressing questions to ask the chief constable about how he intends to proceed on this report.

“We are very clear there is not unionist support or consent for many aspects of what is proposed in this report.

“I believe the chief constable has lost the confidence of unionists.

“I will be making clear to him tomorrow that he should not press on regardless and implement this report in circumstances where I don’t believe he has the confidence of unionists in particular in taking forward key elements of these proposals.

“I will be saying that in person to the chief constable tomorrow because I actually believe in looking across the table at someone and telling them what you think and how you think about these things.

“I believe the chief constable has lost the confidence of unionists and I want to hear what he is going to do about that, how he is going to respond to that and what that means for his position as chief constable.”

Earlier, DUP junior minister Gordon Lyons called for Mr Byrne to resign.

DUP Economy Minister Gordon Lyons says the police chief is "tone deaf" to unionist concerns

Sir Jeffrey said Mr Lyons was “absolutely right to spell out in clear terms where unionists are on this”.

But he said he wanted to give Mr Byrne his views in person.

“I want to face him tomorrow, I want to explain to him why I believe that he has lost the confidence of unionists across Northern Ireland and I want to say to him what I believe that means for his position,” he said.

“I want to say that in person and then I will say publicly what I believe is the way forward on all of this.”

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will meet with the PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne tomorrow

Mr Byrne was strongly criticised by unionists earlier this year after the Public Prosecution Service announced that no prosecutions would be pursued against members of Sinn Fein over their attendance at the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey despite coronavirus restrictions over public gatherings.

Former DUP leader Arlene Foster then called for Mr Byrne to resign before later going on to resign herself following an internal party coup.