Northern Ireland

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 13th April 2021 Commons Chamber

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I thank and agree with the Secretary of State. We all agree that violence is unjustified and unjustifiable. It will break lives and homes, but it will not fix the problems. Democratic politics is the only solution, and politics must be seen to work. The overwhelming majority of good, law-abiding folks in Northern Ireland will never pick up a stone or throw a petrol bomb. We support the police and the rule of law.

However, the Northern Ireland protocol has disrupted business and has created problems on the streets. People are dismayed, there is anger and the frustration is boiling over. Some of them feel they are—indeed, we probably all feel we are—second-class citizens. At the same time, 2,000 people attended the Bobby Storey funeral; we buried my mother-in-law last October, with 25 at the funeral. Will the Secretary of State join me in rejecting two-tier policing where there is one rule for us, but another rule for Sinn Féin, and will he recognise that the flawed Northern Ireland protocol is disrupting peace, rather than cementing stability?

[Brandon Lewis]

I agree in large part with what the hon. Gentleman has said. It is why it is important for us to be working to find solutions for the impact of the outworking of the protocol on the ground and—he is absolutely right, and I absolutely understand this—the impact on people’s sense of identity. I welcome his condemnation of the violence we saw the other week.

On policing, it is important that people are clear that the PSNI’s work is to be there to support, keep safe and protect people of all communities on an equal basis. People need to have trust and faith in that, and I know the PSNI is focused on looking at what it can do to make sure it is delivering it. It is simply unacceptable, particularly with such a set of regulations, that any one community should be in a position where it believes it can see there has been a difference in treatment from one part of the community to another, especially with something so sensitive as family funerals over the last year or so. I absolutely understand people’s frustration, and I know the PSNI does as well. It is working to ensure that people are clear and can have confidence and trust that it is there to work for people across the whole community of Northern Ireland—equally, fairly and properly—to keep us all safe.