The new Conservative-led government will be on a steep learning curve if it is to properly handle the Northern Ireland peace process, Sinn Féin claimed today.
After the Conservative Party’s Owen Paterson was installed as the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the North’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness recalled how he had previously held secret talks with unionists to bolster pro-union parties in the region.
Nationalist parties have also asked how British prime minister David Cameron will act as an honest broker in the peace process, after he led an electoral pact between his party and the Ulster Unionists.
At the start of the year, while the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin were locked in negotiations to secure the peace process, it emerged that Mr Paterson had hosted secret talks with the DUP and UUP on securing unionist gains at election time.
“Obviously people are very conscious of the fact that there were secret meetings taking place in England, presided over by Owen, with the unionist parties, and that it was about effectively trying to unseat, if we are to be crude about it, (Sinn Féin’s) Michelle Gildernew in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and (SDLP’s) Alastair McDonnell in South Belfast," Mr McGuiness said today.
“And I think that now that he has a new responsibility as a minister, I think he needs to re-evaluate whether or not that was a sensible course of action to be involved in.”
Two years ago the Conservatives and the Ulster Unionists announced plans to field joint candidates in Northern Ireland elections, though they ended the latest campaign without winning a single seat.
Mr Cameron initially promised to field candidates in each of Northern Ireland’s 18 general election constituencies. His party rejected DUP calls for unionist unity candidates in marginal seats to prevent nationalist victories, with the Conservatives branding the proposal as sectarian.
But at the start of the year it emerged that Mr Paterson had hosted secret talks on unionist unity between the UUP and DUP. It subsequently emerged that both unionist parties also held discussions under the auspices of the Orange Order.
During the Westminister election campaign it emerged that the Conservatives, UUP and DUP were standing aside in the constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, to give a clear run to unionist unity candidate Rodney Connor.
But the tactic to unseat Ms Gildernew failed when she won the tight contest by the margin of only four votes.
The DUP failed in further attempts to secure a unionist unity candidate in South Belfast to unseat the SDLP’s Alasdair McDonnell, who comfortably held the seat.
During an election campaign visit to Northern Ireland Mr Cameron said that if he were elected prime minister, he would promote and seek to secure the union between Britain and Northern Ireland. He is also on record, however, as saying that he would respect the agreements secured through the peace process and would seek to continue the close cooperation with the Irish Government.
Mr McGuinness highlighted the special relationship that the Conservatives have built with the unionist parties, but he added: “That said, we can’t legislate for the hand that we are dealt. Throughout this process there have been many, many changes.
“We saw Clinton was in the White House, and then Bush entered the White House and now President Obama.
“There have been changes in England. Tony Blair, obviously a hard act to follow in terms of his knowledge and his ability to grasp the situation here, and also his willingness to own-up to the faults of British participation in what was wrong here since the foundation of the northern state.”
Mr Paterson is to meet the leader of the Northern Ireland parties tomorrow.
The Saville Inquiry’s report into the events of Bloody Sunday will be published as soon as possible, Mr Paterson said today.
He told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "I would like to see Saville published as soon as we can. I would like to see it published in a measured, careful way so that it can be considered with all the Seriousness deserved for a report which I understand is five-and-a-half thousand pages long and cost £191 million.
“I hope at the end of it some long-term good can come of it.”
PA