Sinn Féin warns British government that delaying unity poll could spark legal battle

The British government could face court action if it “stalls and delays” in calling a Border poll in Northern Ireland, according to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald.

“The right to a referendum has been conceded. We are not asking Oliver Twist-style ‘please can we have our referendum,’” she told a gathering of world media in Mayfair, central London, on Thursday.

Under the terms of the Belfast Agreement, a Border poll in the North can only be called by the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill told the London gathering that “this is the decade” to have a unity vote.

Belfast Agreement

When Ms McDonald was later asked how she would be able to convince a British government to hold a referendum on Irish unity, she replied that the right to a poll is referenced in the “international agreement” of the Belfast Agreement. But she acknowledged that the final decision ostensibly lies with the Northern Ireland Secretary, currently Chris Heaton-Harris.

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“In reality, the decision will be made by a British prime minister … But don’t confuse that with a carte blanche for the British government to decide whether or not there would even be a referendum … If the British government were to stall and delay, they could face the prospect of somebody with standing challenging them in the courts,” she said.

“It would be a foolish government that wouldn’t have that in their line of sight.”

Ms McDonald said she is not proposing that Sinn Féin will take legal action but “on previous occasions, people have gone to the courts to challenge” aspects of the Belfast Agreement.

Northern Ireland victims’ rights campaigner Raymond McCord lost a case against the British government in the courts in Belfast in 2020, when he sought to force it to clarify the criteria for holding a Border poll.

Ms McDonald said she wants to “foster a positive relationship” with the British government and has asked to meet prime minister Rishi Sunak.

“I think a meeting between [Mr Sunak] and the Sinn Féin leadership, led by someone who happens to be a Dubliner, would be very very welcome. We are working to try to secure that meeting. We want a grown-up, open line of communication with the British government. We are on for that and we hope that they are too. We want friendly relations,” she said.

‘Hokey’ explanations

However, Ms McDonald criticised the British government for providing “hokey” explanations of why she was excluded by the British government from round-table talks with all parties in Belfast last week. “It should not have happened,” she said.

The Sinn Féin delegation, which also included party MP John Finucane and Northern Ireland Assembly member Conor Murphy, was in London on a media tour to put public pressure on the British government and the Democratic Unionist Party to do a deal on the Northern Ireland protocol and set up a devolved government in the North which has been hit by a DUP boycott for eight months.

She said the current situation is “unfair on the people of Northern Ireland, who are “caught between a Tory rock and a hard place”.