Colum Eastwood calls Brexit 'ever-shifting water beneath our feet'

PA Reporter

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has described Brexit as the "ever-shifting water beneath our feet".

During an address at the Fianna Fail national conference, Mr Eastwood said: "No-one should be in any doubt - the instability of Brexit and the instability faced by the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are inextricably linked.

"A hard border in Ireland threatens to bring existential threats to many of our industries in the North.

"It threatens to position us as a permanent economic backwater.

"This is particularly true for communities west of the Bann and along the border... All of us instinctively know that this can't be allowed to happen."

He told delegates at the 79th Ard Fheis: "Any hardening of the border will be a deliberate violation of our political process by the British Government.

"They have simply no right. In Northern Ireland, the Good Friday Agreement is sovereign.

"Both of our parties know this is true - we were the architects of that agreement - we built it."

He added: "That agreement belongs to the people of Ireland and we are the only people with the right to change it."

Mr Eastwood said a new border on the island of Ireland was not needed and that full economic alignment across the island must be maintained.

"This must be the agreed backstop," he said.

"The backstop is not our first choice, but it is our ultimate protection."

He added: "The new partnership between the SDLP and Fianna Fail is based on a common analysis that business as usual is not an option.

"Extraordinary times call for more than ordinary measures."

The SDLP leader said a New Ireland can only be reached if definition and detail are provided, and that no referendum should be called until that work was done.

"There will be a special place reserved in hell for those who call for a border poll in Ireland with no plan and idea," he said.

Mr Eastwood added that a key role for the new political partnership was to begin a conversation with unionists over what a New Ireland would look like.

"We recognise the deep divisions that exist across our community and we know that it will take real leadership to begin to bring our communities together," he said.

Mr Eastwood concluded that there was no way of fully protecting people against the devastating consequences of Brexit without an Assembly in Stormont.

"Both the SDLP and Fianna Fail are coming together to ensure that we return to the vision we imagined and built some 21 years ago," he said.

"We will fight to ensure that government returns to the North and that our people are no longer left voiceless and powerless."