Villiers gets ‘sympathetic hearing’ in US on Stormont stalemate

Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers said she received a "very sympathetic hearing" from Obama administration aides on her views about the Northern Ireland political stalemate over welfare cuts.

Ms Villiers told The Irish Times, after meeting senior US government officials in Washington, there was “a recognition that all governments have to live within their means,” suggesting that the US administration backed the British government’s position.

She claims that the failure of Sinn Féin to implement the Stormont House Agreement has caused the deadlock, while Sinn Féin contends that the the welfare cuts and austerity measures sought by the British government are to blame.

Speaking at the British ambassador’s residence, Ms Villiers said there was “a willingness on the part of the Americans to encourage everyone to work together to try to get a resolution here.”

During her visit, she met Colin Kahl, national security adviser to vice president Joe Biden, Charles Kupchan, senior director for Europe at the National Security Council and Andrew O'Brien, special representative for global partnerships at the State Department.

She also met Democratic congressman Richie Neal of Massachusetts and the Friends of Ireland Caucus on Capitol Hill.

“The US is an important influencer amongst particularly the nationalist parties in Northern Ireland. It is important that they hear the perspective of the UK government on these issues,” she said.

The secretary's arrival in Washington overlapped with a separate visit by Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness whose itinerary was organised by his party, Sinn Féin, rather than by the Northern Ireland Bureau, the Executive's US representative office.

The two are on separate public relations offensives to sell their respective messages in the US about the cause of the crisis. Mr McGuinness met State Department officials and Friends of Ireland members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

Ms Villiers said her visit was not influenced by Mr McGuinness’s visit, which she only learned about “a few days ago.” Her trip was organised a couple of months ago following the UK elections in May.

“Given the political deadlock it would be helpful to bring forward that visit [from November] and we fixed on July,” she said. Asked whether Sinn Féin’s opposition to welfare cuts was influenced by the party’s anti-austerity stance in the Republic, Ms Villiers said that she thought this was part of the party’s thinking but “not necessarily a driver” of its position in Northern Ireland.

“As you will appreciate, it is not always easy to work out what motivates Sinn Féin,” she said. The party’s reversal on the Stormont House Agreement was “a big disappointment” given how they helped deliver the accord and which they initially praised as a good result for Northern Ireland.

Facing a budget crisis in the autumn, Northern Ireland was entering “unchartered territory” for a devolved government facing the prospect of running out of money, said Ms Villiers.

She said she hopes Sinn Féin would “display the pragmatism that they have over the last 20 years” because there was a danger that frontline public services would start to be affected over the next couple of months.

“I really hope that that will be a strong motivation to Sinn Féin and to all the Executive’s political parties to get this resolved because it would be really worrying if people were not going to be getting appropriate, effective services that they would need because of this budget dispute,” she said.