Colum Eastwood
MP for Foyle · Social Democratic & Labour Party · United Kingdom
“I am not sure that we know that the IRA did not keep records, but that is an aside. What we do know very well, given all that we have seen over the last number of years and the reports that have been done, is that the IRA and other terrorist organisations were riddled from top to bottom with informers reporting directly to the British sta…”
House of Commons20 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am very grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s kind words. I just want to make sure that I understood him; he said that inquests have not dealt with innocent civilians being killed.”
House of Commons20 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There are cases right now of dead children where the families still have not got access to their files and will not for many years. We have issues with some of the provisions. We have issues with the national security veto, which has been used many times before. It is a national embarrassment and should not be used again.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They had good experiences and bad experiences with some of the people they met. Patsy Gillespie’s daughter Jennifer was among them. A braver family you could not meet.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Next week, we will have to go to the Supreme Court, because this Government are appealing the judgment that mandates this Government to bring about a public inquiry. I appeal to the Government today to take the opportunity to listen to what Bridie Brown has had to go through.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Should those people not be entitled to the same level of justice, if it can be achieved, as any other citizen in the United Kingdom? I do not understand the argument against it.”
House of Commons19 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
The complete record
435 held · 431 searchable for Colum Eastwood. The searchable lines are below in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 3 of 9.
This is not an official version of UK Parliament proceedings. It reproduces the published record and links to it; the official version is the one UK Parliament publishes.
“Members do not believe me, they should read the Saville report. One after another, they lied through their teeth. The notion that, if we give people immunity, they will all of a sudden come and tell us all they know is just not practical or realistic. I do not believe victims will engage in that process. I also want to say something about the nonsense that we have all these vexatious prosecutions. Nobody has ever pointed one out to me. There are no vexatious prosecutions. I would love someone to tell me exactly how many British soldiers served time as a result of what they did in Northern Ireland. It would not take very long to count them. We are disappointed that Lords amendment 20 is being opposed by the Government.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“He has met victims’ groups, human rights groups, the United States Administration and European politicians, and he has met all of us. I would love to know whether he came away from any one of those meetings with the impression that people actually wanted this Bill. As the hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson) said, we do have an agreement: not only are we agreed that we are opposed to the Bill, but we are agreed that Stormont House is the way to carry out this process. To pretend that we have all been fighting over this issue for the last seven or eight years is just nonsense. Moreover, the pretence that the Bill is about allowing people to get to the truth is quite easily debunked. I remember the Bloody Sunday inquiry. The soldiers were offered immunity within that inquiry and they lied through their teeth; if hon.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Unlike some of the people who have been involved in this debate more recently, who have left the Chamber of course, we care about the victims and we want to put the victims at the heart of all this. I have been working on this issue for about 20 years. I know many of those victims. They are not people who want to live in the past; they are people who want a better future. But unless we deal with this issue, they will never be able to have the reconciled future that they crave. The Bill is a licence for impunity and a signal to other countries that they can murder their own citizens and get away with it, but mostly it is legislation written in very dark corners of the British establishment to ensure that light is not shone into those corners. The Secretary of State tells us he has had a lot of meetings and I am sure he has.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I wish that we did not have to be in this Chamber. I am glad that the Labour party has committed to repealing the Bill once it is law but, in reality, between now and the new Labour Government, a lot of people could have little letters that they can bandy about because they will have got away with destroying lives and families, and this British Government are giving them a blank cheque to do it.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“But I know that, to get to that place, we cannot keep glorifying the ugliness and horribleness of the past. Whatever the future brings, we still have to come together as a community, but the Bill gives cover to those who are putting Ulster Volunteer Force flags up lampposts or singing “Up the ‘Ra” in pubs. I appeal to anybody who thinks that that is a good way to bring society back together again to talk to some of the victims I speak to regularly, many of whom I know very well. All those things hurt them. Although the rest of us have been allowed to move on and build a life as a result of the peace process, they are still stuck, and not because they want to be. They are more future-focused than anybody I have ever met, because they do not want their grandchildren to stay stuck having to deal with the mess that they have been left.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Although we work tirelessly on this—lots of people did in political parties in Northern Ireland—I have always believed that the dark forces within the state will do all they can to prevent the full truth of what happened from coming out. Some people say that they oppose the Bill because it creates a moral equivalence between the British Army and paramilitary organisations. That is not why I oppose it. I oppose it because it benefits murderers, whether or not they were wearing a uniform. That is a fairly simple principle to stand by. What we are talking about here is much more important than has been mentioned. We are talking about how we can build a future together—a reconciled future for our people. Some of my colleagues here want that to be within the United Kingdom; I want it to be within a new united Ireland.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“His brother Emmet, who has been fighting for justice ever since, says that the “real winners” of this legislation are the perpetrators of violence, and he is absolutely right. Some of the files in Stephen’s case will not be opened until 2071, almost 100 years after Stephen’s murder. James Miller, whose grandfather David Miller was killed by the IRA’s horrific bomb in Claudy in 1972, said: “I describe it as the family having a sore, and that sore is there all the time—it’s open and we just want that sore to heal.” James went on: “They are just closing the whole process down…for a reason…. A lot of stuff may come out that will make the government look bad.” That is what this is about. I have been dealing with this for 20 years.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The right hon. Member is absolutely right. The families involved—we do have to be careful—in those investigations are largely very happy about the way in which Jon Boutcher’s team have dealt with them. But, of course, some people—a lot of people—do not want the truth to get out: people in the British Government, people in paramilitary organisations, and some people who were in both of those things at the same time. They do not want the truth to come out because they are very worried that the glorified version of their history actually turns out to be a dirty little war. Stephen McConomy was 11 years old when he was shot in the back of the head at very close range by a British soldier firing a plastic bullet in Derry in 1982.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Can I ask the hon. Gentleman to be very careful in his language? The last time that solicitors were named in this House, we ended up in a very bad and dangerous place. I would just ask him to be very careful about his language, because we can never go back to those days, and people in this House should not be giving licence for that.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is an interesting take on the matter, given what I remember happening at the time. Yes, the Ulster Unionists had some reservations about the agreement, but all the other parties supported it. It was up to the British Government, along with the Irish Government, to implement it, and it is only because the British Government went off on their own—without the Irish Government—and undermined it by ignoring rather than implementing it that the Bill has ended up in this place. In my strong view, this is where the British Government have always wanted to take things.”
House of Commons18 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My grandmother once told me that two wrongs do not make a right. Is the hon. Gentleman making the argument that just because Sinn Féin brought the Executive down for three and a half years, it is okay for the Democratic Unionist party to do the same?”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I think that is a discussion we will have in the coming years, and I look forward to having it in a respectful manner. If the Secretary of State is serious about getting the DUP to go back to work in Stormont, I will be with him in that endeavour, but it is long past time that a time limit was put on this nonsense. Have the discussions, have the debates, work with the Government—I am all for all of that—but we need to be back in government, dealing with the people’s problems and the people’s concerns. If that does not happen, we cannot have this kind of direct rule by the back door, because the next step in that—people should listen to this—has to be greater involvement of the Irish Government in the affairs of Northern Ireland.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Maybe we need to think about that. We do not even sit in Dáil Éireann and we are able to bring that kind of money into our communities in Northern Ireland. Imagine the impact that we would have if 20% of Teachtaí Dála in Dáil Éireann came from Northern Ireland. [ Interruption. ] I think some people sitting not too far away from me have done an awful lot for the cause of Irish unity, and I am very grateful to them for it. We hear a lot about the Barnett formula, and it is useful that we discuss how the funding envelope is decided, but it is maybe also worth considering why we need so much underpinning from the British Government. Has the economic unit of Northern Ireland ever really worked to its full potential? I would argue that it has not.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I hear all the time about transformation in health and the waiting lists that we have. We cannot do anything about those if we do not put money in up front. Yes, we absolutely have to take tough decisions, but health needs to be properly funded and resourced so that we can do that. All the while, there is €500 million in the shared island unit to fund projects in Northern Ireland. The Irish Government are investing in Northern Ireland. Only two or three weeks ago, I was able to secure £38 million to expand the university at Magee in Derry. We have seen support from the Irish Government for the Narrow Water bridge. And lo and behold, the Department of Health in Dublin is funding 250 nursing and midwifery places at a cost of €10 million. That is only the start of the investment that the Irish Government are making in Northern Ireland.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“A police officer was nearly killed a number of months ago because people in Northern Ireland are trying to kill police officers, and they would if they could get away with it. And we are telling them: “You have to find cuts in that budget as well.” The implementation of the domestic abuse, stalking and people-trafficking legislation cannot get done because of a lack of funding. Our community sector is being absolutely decimated. Community groups, particularly in the most difficult and disadvantaged areas of Northern Ireland, have stepped into the void during decades of difficult times. They are stepping into the void where Departments are not dealing with the issues that they have to deal with, but we are going to decimate those groups as well. We have talked about health.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We have cut the holiday hunger payment for the most vulnerable kids in our society—that is what we are doing. It is absolutely shameful. A number of weeks ago, I went to see Bunscoil Cholmcille, a school in my constituency. It is a great Irish-medium primary school. Those kids are being taught in huts with holes in the walls and damp in the cupboards—the place is falling apart. It will have its 40th anniversary next year. It is a wonderful school doing great work in our community, but we are teaching kids in huts that are falling apart, and rain is getting through the roof. We cannot even pay our teachers or classroom assistants the wages that they should be entitled to. We have already talked about the massive issues in the PSNI, and although we are told that there is £32 million extra for it, there is a massive hole in that budget.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is one thing that has resulted from cuts being made to our budgets. The Foyle cup will see thousands of young people coming to Derry next week to play football—people from all around the world—but it is now under pressure because of cuts from these decisions. We are actually talking about cutting funding for university places. We should be trying to expand university places in Northern Ireland. I hear from the Secretary of State and everybody else that skills are the No. 1 issue for turning the economy around, but we are talking about cutting away at that as well. We are cutting Invest Northern Ireland—the people who are tasked with bringing jobs to regions of Northern Ireland. Others, including the shadow Secretary of State, talked eloquently about the issues in our Education Department.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We did not get to watch the whole match because it was interrupted by a bomb scare, but he listened to me—he had no choice, because he was sitting right beside me for most of the match—talking about the difficulties in the city and the need for proper investment in drug and alcohol recovery. He was sitting in the Ryan McBride Brandywell stadium. Ryan McBride was a wonderful captain of Derry City who sadly died far too young. There is a foundation in his name—the Ryan McBride Foundation—which does fantastic cross-community work with schoolkids in all types of schools right across Derry and Strabane, but it has had its funding to deliver those projects cut. We are nearly at the point where the Ryan McBride Foundation will not be able to exist if it does not get replacement funding.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is absolutely clear that this Budget is a tactic to put pressure on the DUP, but actually he has swung, missed the DUP and instead hit the most vulnerable people in our society. Is it the responsibility of a child with special educational needs and disabilities in a school to get the DUP to go back to work? Is it the responsibility of an elderly patient waiting for a hip replacement—remember, one in four people in Northern Ireland are on hospital waiting lists—to get the Executive back up and running in Northern Ireland? No, it is not. This is a callous, cack-handed attempt at political positioning and it clearly is not working. Not that long ago, I brought the Secretary of State to watch a football match in Derry.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I think we are really through the looking-glass now. It is great to hear real unity from those on these Benches about the problems that exist in Northern Ireland’s public sector and the budgetary difficulties that we have. It would be a lot better if members of our political parties were saying it in a different Chamber that has responsibility for bringing in budgets for the Departments of Northern Ireland, for dealing with the health service, the education system, the police service and all those other areas of public policy that we need to deal with as a matter of urgency—but I will let that one hang. It is interesting to listen to the Secretary of State, because he has let the cat out of the bag.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It was not me who suggested that that was a tactic. The Secretary of State outlined the tactic in his own speech: he said that the next stages of the Bill will not be introduced until after the summer, and that that would give us all time to work together to get to government. It is clearly a tactic, although it is not going to work as a tactic. There are better tactics in my view, and I have laid some of them out to the Minister before, but it is a bit disingenuous to pretend that this is anything but a pressure point for the DUP that is clearly not working.”
House of Commons10 July 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“One quarter of the population of Northern Ireland is on a health waiting list, our workers are on strike for fair pay, and our public finances are in a mess. Will the Prime Minister give a commitment that the Treasury will begin work immediately on a public sector rescue package so we can transform the health service and ensure that our public sector workers are given a decent wage—and will he join the people of Northern Ireland in telling the DUP to get back to work now?”
House of Commons24 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It has been 15 months since we had an Executive at Stormont. Our health service has basically collapsed, and our economy is not taking up the opportunity provided by the Windsor framework and the protocol. Surely now it is time for the Secretary of State to look at a greater role for the Irish Government in the affairs of Northern Ireland.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. He has talked about revenue raising. It is possible that a new model for funding higher education will be looked at. Given that all Governments have said that they want to ensure an expansion in student numbers in Derry, can he guarantee that that hope and desire will be protected under any new funding model?”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It goes against the political current in the United States of America right now. This is a huge opportunity, and it is an opportunity that we need to grasp. Frankly, I do not understand why we cannot do two things at the one time.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Over the last number of years, we have faced chaos in our politics inflicted by a Brexit vote somewhere else, because the people in Northern Ireland voted to remain by a majority. That has been the genesis of the crisis we are in today. We argued for a couple of years about the protocol and its implications. Now we have the Windsor framework, which gives us the opportunity to trade into both markets. We have had former American Presidents, the current American President, former US Secretaries of State and the current US Secretary of State, countless Senators and Members of the House of Representatives coming over and telling us that they want to help us by bringing jobs to Northern Ireland. There is not a single other place in the world where American politicians are saying they want jobs to leave America for. That just does not happen.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is painfully true and obvious, but is it okay, then, to have direct rule, which is basically what this is becoming, operating without the consent of the nationalist community? That is what we are being asked to have, and that will have its own consequences as we move through the process. The shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the hon. Member for Hove (Peter Kyle), rightly referenced the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement—the immense change it has brought about and the bravery of that political generation to make very hard decisions and take very big steps, much bigger than those we are asking people to take today. Its impact has been profoundly significant for many people, particularly in my generation.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Many of the arguments some of us are using today were used by the DUP when Sinn Féin pulled the Government down and kept it down for three and a half years. It seems to me that people cannot even learn the lessons they were trying to teach others. We know how that ended: Sinn Féin realised halfway through that boycott that it was doing nobody any good. The waiting lists were still getting longer and certain people were beginning to get the blame for that. My view is that we have a responsibility to all the people in all our constituencies, no matter what their politics are, to have a Government functioning and working together. I heard again today from the DUP that devolution cannot work without the consent of both communities.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is great to hear that the Democratic Unionist party now supports north-south co-operation. It would be good if we were to allow the north-south bodies to operate properly as well. I totally agree with the right hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) and the hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson) about the deficiencies of the Barnett formula. The SDLP, many years ago, proposed moving away from the Barnett formula to a more needs-based approach. It is just a pity that DUP Ministers at that time campaigned loudly and actively against it. However, we are here now. This is a Bill that nobody wants, least of all the civil service which is being asked to use these powers. We know why we are here: the DUP refuses to form a Government.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I made this point earlier to the Minister, but I will make it again: we can talk about the detail of revenue raising at any point, but I want to make it clear that the Irish Government, the British Government and the former Northern Ireland Executive all committed to expanding university places in Derry, which has been waited for and campaigned on for many decades. In any new funding model for higher education, that needs to be protected, and the opportunity needs still to be there for expansion of university places in Derry. If we are really serious about rebalancing the economy regionally and giving people the opportunity to create jobs and get employed in their own areas, that has to be our No. 1 priority.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Right now, we have a health service that is not free at the point of delivery because people cannot get access to it without paying. Many people in my constituency are going to the credit union to get loans that they cannot afford to pay back, so that they can have the vital surgery they need to live their lives in a normal and comfortable way. There is no space in this budget for proper health service transformation. Those 500,000 people will remain on waiting lists, which will grow and grow.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Little Orchids in my constituency, which looks after kids from two to four years’ old, was told a couple of days ago that it would have to halve the number of children that it can help in its facility. They are the people affected by this particular budget. We are also told that there will be no new school buildings or extensions. Many of the teachers’ and children’s classrooms are crumbling. None of that work will start this year, and we do not know at all when it will. In all the discussions we have on radio stations, in TV studios and here about the need for health service transformation, as difficult as it will be, we have all bought into doing the hard things needed to make the health service more sustainable, to get 500,000 people off waiting lists and to make a health service that we can be proud of.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We can do both at the one time. The Bill and the budget are imposing huge cuts on the most vulnerable in our society. The extended schools programme is aimed at schools in disadvantaged areas and at kids who are the most disadvantaged in our society. It brings things like counselling for young people, breakfast clubs and after-school clubs. It is being axed because of this budget. We are axing free baby books for kids. Every year, 20,000 families are given access to free books and reading advice from the Book Trust, a vital tool we can give to our children. Anybody who has kids understands that teaching them to read as early as possible is a really important life skill. We are cutting that—that is where the axe is falling as a result of this budget. We are also cutting special needs places in nursery schools.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know we will not be able to solve all the issues overnight, but we will not be able to solve them by doing nothing at all. Why can we not sit down as grown-ups and work through the difficulties, while at the same time implementing the changes required to help people in Northern Ireland get off the waiting lists, to help people create jobs, and to bring in investment that keeps our young people at home instead of sending them off to work somewhere else? That is not beyond the wit of the political class in Northern Ireland today, given all the hard things that had to be done, including by the DUP, in the peace process we have had since before 1998. We can do this very, very simply. There is no logic any more in holding up the institutions of the Good Friday agreement so that we can deal with outstanding issues.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is a very interesting take on the fact that next year the Irish Government will have a budget surplus of €16 billion and we are squabbling over the crumbs from London’s table. There is another question the hon. Member should ask himself: why are we not trying to join the thriving economic entity that is the Republic of Ireland? Our people would be a lot better off. The point I was making is, in my view, very obvious. I accept that DUP Members still have some difficulty with some issues, and I am happy to sit down and work through them. I will speak to the Irish Government, the British Government and whoever we have to speak to, to help us to get over this hump. The reality, though, is that we are well capable of doing that at the same time as getting into government and dealing with the health crisis.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Why would we have any faith in Stormont to deliver for us?” People are beginning to think differently about their future. I will argue every day to end the divisions on our island and to build a new Ireland, but I caution those who stand up and talk about the precious Union a lot in his place that they are opening a door to something that they might end up regretting, because more and more people are moving away from support for Stormont. I do not want that to happen. I think we can do two things at once. We can have locally elected people running the institutions of Northern Ireland. There is a better way to do this in the longer term.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If we are not to have institutions at Stormont, and if locally elected people are not to have representatives running the place because they are denied that opportunity, the British Government need to look seriously at a greater role for the Irish Government in the affairs of Northern Ireland. I say that advisedly because in a number of periods when we were denied institutions at Stormont, it was only that promise that encouraged some people to get back and to form a Government representing all the traditions on the island. That is well worth considering. We are knocking on doors and speaking to people. An awful lot is said about Unionist concerns, which we listen to and try to be respectful of, but many of the people we speak to say, “Why would we have any faith in the DUP to work with nationalism?”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have been clear with the leadership of Ulster University that people are very weary, tired and lacking in trust in that institution. The leadership needs to come up urgently with a plan to expand university places to at least 10,000 students or people will begin to look elsewhere, as the hon. Member says. We must be realistic and serious, and we must make this happen because we cannot wait any longer to have proper university provision for the people in my city. We are now basically in a period of direct rule, and we are moving inch by inch closer to London-only rule. That flies in the face of the Good Friday agreement and every single agreement that we have made since. I urge this Government to think carefully about what happens next, because this situation cannot be allowed to run and run.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention and his work on this issue. There was a short period when we did not have an MP for Foyle in this Chamber making these points. The hon. Member and others stepped up on that issue, and we were very grateful to him. The people of Derry have been starved of a university since 1964. That has massively damaged our economic opportunities—that along with the bombing campaign that blew the place to bits. We are now 25 years on from the Good Friday agreement, and we still have not maximised that opportunity. We have a university in Derry—we are clear about that—but it is not big enough and it does not do enough to attract the kind of students who, in turn, will attract the economic opportunities that we want.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Member for Lagan Valley (Sir Jeffrey M. Donaldson) and his colleagues to achieve some modicum of change around that. My appeal to him is this: let us sit down, work together in our substantial common interest, work the common ground, get back into Stormont and try—as hard as it might be—to begin to fix some of the problems that beset all our people.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have tried my best to understand the concerns of Unionism, and I think the European Union and the British Government have as well, to be fair. That is why we have the Windsor framework. If there are still outstanding issues, let us talk about them. Even when we were threatened with a hard border, we did not walk away from government. We did not stop working in the institutions. We wanted to sit down and continue to work with our neighbours—even those who we disagreed with—because that goes right to the heart of the Good Friday agreement. Walking away and boycotting will solve nothing, in our strong view. If there are outstanding issues, and if there are solutions that do not impact upon the principle of protecting all-Ireland trade and avoiding a hard border, we will be open to looking at those and to working with the right hon.”
House of Commons10 May 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way to me. I thought I was going to have to do a whole lot of squats just to get in. One of the criteria for using the Stormont brake, and for signing the Petition of Concern, is that Members of the Legislative Assembly “must be individually and collectively seeking in good faith to fully operate the institutions, including through the nomination of Ministers and support for the normal operation of the Assembly.” Does this mean that Jim Allister will be precluded from signing the petition?”
House of Commons22 March 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If memory serves me right, the hon. Gentleman voted for the protocol, which did not have a Stormont brake and had far more checks in it. Can he explain why he is voting against this?”
House of Commons22 March 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They are more interested in internal Tory politics than they are in the wishes and interests of the people in Northern Ireland, and I urge the DUP to learn the lesson of the past few years. The people who the DUP Members can trust—the people who want to work with them—are sitting right here on these Benches. They are not over there on the Back Benches of the Tory party.”
House of Commons22 March 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In the very short time I have, I will make a number of brief points. We do not like the Stormont brake, for a number of reasons. I would never have agreed the Stormont brake, because I think it damages and clouds the investor proposition; it has no specific role for the human rights or equality commissions; and the brake can be pulled before the committee can even finish its work on scrutiny. Most importantly, given the number of years I spent in Stormont, I think it is a very bad idea to give the DUP a veto over anything. I also want to say something about some of the people in this House who will vote against this motion today—former Prime Ministers and members of the European Research Group, all of whom supported the protocol which had no Stormont brake and far more checks for businesses.”
House of Commons22 March 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Dual market access is a huge opportunity that is right in our face—as somebody said earlier, people from around this House would give their left arm to have that opportunity for their own constituents. Despite some concerns that even I have with the agreement, why, oh why, would we give that up? The most important thing to remember, though, is that it is done—it is over. The negotiation is finished. The British Government and the European Union are moving forward. They are moving on; they are dealing with other issues. It is now time to deal with the crisis in our health service, which is at the point of collapse, and to deal with the economic stagnation. It is time to get into Stormont, to do the work on behalf of the people, and to come back together again and work the common ground. There is no other alternative.”
House of Commons22 March 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“However, let me make something very clear to this House: if the DUP still refuses to go into government after all of this, I can guarantee that more and more people will figure out that the best way to make the north of Ireland work is within a new Ireland. That is where this is going, and people should be very aware of that. The right hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sir Jeffrey M. Donaldson), the Secretary of State, and myself were all in the United States last week. We know that President Biden has appointed Joe Kennedy as an economic envoy to try to take full advantage of dual market access. We met investors and senior members of the US Administration who want to help us bring jobs to places such as Derry that have been left behind over many years.”
House of Commons22 March 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“And, of course, the agreement that the right hon. Member did not support. We will vote for this motion, because it has been made very clear that this is a vote on the whole framework. We have been through many a negotiation in the past. We understand when the negotiation is done and a decision has to be made. There have been parts of every single agreement that we have not liked, but we have had to stomach them for the greater good of the people of Northern Ireland. We see the Unionist concerns; we see many of them—most of them—addressed in this agreement; and we are prepared to make the decision on that basis.”
House of Commons22 March 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Well, I have to say it is great to hear of the conversion that the Prime Minister has had on the benefits of the single market. Given Northern Ireland’s access to the dual market—both markets—and the benefits that that brings, will his Government commit to investing in infrastructure and higher education provision to maximise that benefit?”
House of Commons1 March 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Does the Prime Minister agree it is important that his Government now support that dual market access and promote it to international investors?”
House of Commons27 February 2023Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗