It’s market day in Dungannon. Picking a bunch of flowers outside the arts centre where the new Northern Secretary has just met Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill, teacher Ciara Cassidy says she has “no faith” in the Conservative government in addressing the cost of living in the North.
“I teach in the town, and we are dealing with levels of social deprivation that have never been worse. The DUP are refusing to take their seats but taking their salaries and we are dismayed by it all.
“It’s just an awful shame, we have come so far. I don’t think any favours will be done for Northern Ireland by Liz Truss, I feel we are the bottom of the pile and always have been.”
Edith Latimer is parking her car nearby the Hill of O’Neill site in the Co Tyrone town, the ancient capital of Ulster. She thinks the new secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, should “be given a chance” to alter the protocol, which, she says, “never should have happened”.
In relation to the cost-of-living crisis, she adds: “I am 84 and was widowed in my 30s with two young children, I have always put a bit by and tried to save. I have so little to live on, but we just must save.”
[ New Northern Secretary makes first visit to NorthOpens in new window ]
[ Next two months ‘last chance’ to reach North protocol deal with UK, says AhernOpens in new window ]
In Irish Street, Bernie Mulgrew is unpacking boxes of Christmas candles in the parish religious shop where she has worked as a volunteer for six years. She is aware Ms O’Neill and the Northern Secretary are meeting not far away.
“I don’t think his appointment will make much difference. We’re sitting here and nothing is happening at Stormont when you have all these price hikes with oil and electric.
“At least in England, they’re moving on and know when they’re going to get their grants to pay their heating bills. Here, it’s just stalemate.”
Their views are typical of those expressed across Northern Ireland. Hospital worker Marian Smith is rushing out to lunch on Belfast’s Falls Road and admits she hasn’t heard of Heaton-Harris. The domestic is on a shift at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children; she shrugs her shoulders when asked about the appointment of the staunch Brexiteer by new UK prime minister Truss.
“People here have lost interest, there’s been so many secretaries of state. Years ago you could have named them,” she says.
“I don’t think anything is going to change with him. We’ve been striking for years for more pay and nothing seems to have been done.
“We worked through the pandemic and everyone came out clapping every Thursday. Now all the politicians seem to think we’ve done our bit and expect us just to go back without any extra support.”
Heaton-Harris is the third Tory MP to hold the post within three months with the job reportedly turned down by two of his colleagues during Truss’s cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday evening. Describing himself as a “fierce Eurosceptic”, the MP for Daventry and former chair of the pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG), pledged on Wednesday during his Commons’ address that he will “work with everybody” to resolve problems over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The appointment has been welcomed by the DUP and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister — who tweeted his hopes of Heaton-Harris playing an “active role” in delivering Northern Ireland from “the iniquitous Protocol”. But political commentator Chris Donnelly believes anti-protocol unionists should be concerned about the Tory MP’s ability to meet their demands.
“I still think those who have the greatest reason to be anxious remain the DUP because they’re all putting all their eggs in one basket.”
Controversy around a letter sent in 2017 by Heaton-Harris to universities asking for names of professors who taught Brexit courses — denounced by some as having the “whiff of McCarthyism” — is further troubling, adds Donnelly.
“We’ve had an element of that here with some academics in relation to their positions on the constitutional question. So his previous involvement with the ERG and this investigation into universities about their Brexit leanings would raise alarm bells at any time — but particularly in the context of this moment.”
A haulage industry chief in the North is hoping the new Northern Secretary’s business background — before entering politics he ran his family’s wholesale fruit and vegetable company — will work to the sector’s advantage.
“I’ve spoken to Chris a couple of times and engaged with him on Brexit,” says Seamus Leheny of Logistics UK.
“At least he understands the agri-food supply chain business, I think that’s something myself and other groups could build on. It’s not until he’s on the ground he’ll come to appreciate some of the issues here.”
Unionist commentator Sarah Creighton, however, also strikes a note of caution. “I’m a bit concerned that he is going to follow a more hardline policy, that he’s not going to listen to everyone across Northern Ireland,” she says.
“I do think it’s right he listens to unionists and I get why they’re annoyed about the protocol, but you can’t just listen to one side of the community. Where secretaries of state have done really well in Northern Ireland is when they have engaged with both sides.”
