WESTMINSTER 2010: Northern Ireland election:SINN FÉIN, the SDLP, DUP, Alliance and trade unionists have criticised comments by British Conservative leader David Cameron which suggested the possibility of public spending cuts in Northern Ireland.
In a BBC interview at the weekend, Mr Cameron said in some UK regions the “state accounts for a bigger share of the economy than it did in the communist countries of the old eastern bloc – it is clearly unsustainable”.
Asked to be specific, Mr Cameron replied: “I think the first one I would pick out is Northern Ireland. In Northern Ireland it is quite clear, almost every party, I think, accepts that the size of the state has got too big – we need a bigger private sector.”
He called for a faster-growing private sector and a “rebalancing of the economy”.
His remarks sparked opposition from the British Labour Party, as well as political and union criticism in Northern Ireland.
DUP Minister for Finance Sammy Wilson, defending East Antrim MP, interpreted Mr Cameron’s remarks as a warning of public spending cuts which would cause “disproportionate economic pain”. “David Cameron should not be unfairly targeting the Northern Ireland taxpayer,” he said.
Sinn Féin and the SDLP went further, claiming the Conservatives had let slip their plans for the Northern public sector.
Sinn Féin Minister for Agriculture Michelle Gildernew said: “This is indicative of what we can expect with any Tory-led British government. Sinn Féin will resist unnecessary cuts to our dynamic public sector and services. Communities right across the North cannot afford this reckless move to be implemented, and it must be opposed.”
The SDLP’s Alasdair McDonnell said of Mr Cameron’s policy: “Now we have it fair and square. From the start we said this was where we were going, that cuts and jobs were the real issues, but the Cameron clanger will have huge implications for other parties. Will [Ulster Unionist leader] Sir Reg Empey be sitting at the cabinet table when they take the knife to Michael McGimpsey’s health budget, which accounts for 50 per cent of our devolved spend?”
Mr McDonnell also criticised Sinn Féin’s policy of abstentionism at Westminster. “It also exposes the nonsense of Sinn Féin’s refusal to represent their constituents. Condemning Cameron won’t get the people of West Belfast or Fermanagh and South Tyrone very far.”
The Alliance’s Anna Lo said: “We all know that the Tories are the slash-and-burn party, and they proved us right with these remarks. People here will be angry that the Tories are virtually labelling us public enemy number one on spending.”
Northern secretary Shaun Woodward said: “While Gordon Brown and Labour have stood by the people of Northern Ireland, David Cameron and the Tories have been secretly planning to decimate the economy just when it’s beginning to recover from the global recession.”
The North’s biggest public sector union, Nipsa, said: “The private sector in Northern Ireland relies heavily on public subsidy, and yet its entrepreneurs have failed to create sufficient high-value employment.”
Ulster Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy defended Mr Cameron, saying his was an “honest assessment of the Northern Ireland economy”, and that all of the parties in Northern Ireland were agreed upon it.
Amid suggestions the Conservative leader’s remarks referred to growth of the private sector rather than cutting of public spending, Mr Kennedy added: “In fact, even the Executive in its programme for government acknowledges that there is an over-dependence on the public sector in Northern Ireland and the economy needs to be rebalanced.”