Individual Post

 Sinn Féin MLA Conor Murphy has said Secretary of State James Brokenshire’s claims to want to “canvass public opinion” on an EU exit have been exposed.

The Newry representative made the statement after Mr Brokenshire called off a meeting in the city when he was informed that local community groups were holding a protest.

“Mr Brokenshire announced this grand tour of the north with much fanfare claiming he wanted to ‘listen and learn about the diverse issues faced by people’ yet the first opportunity he had to meet with concerned communities from the border he ran away.

“This tour has now been well and truly exposed as the PR exercise it is.  What he wants is a series of photo shoots with handpicked groups; he does not want to speak to the ordinary people who are going to have to live with the consequences of a catastrophic EU exit.

“People want to know what is going to happen to the border, what is going to happen to EU funding, to agriculture, to cross border trade; he won’t engage with the people because neither he nor his government have any answers to these questions.

“Once again the north has been burdened with a needless Secretary of State who neither understands them nor has any desire to do so. “