Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to Northern Ireland has “raised expectations” that he will act on the high cost of fuel, the Sinn Fein leader has said.
Mary Lou McDonald said the cost of living was the main topic discussed during a “very forthright” meeting with Sir Keir in Belfast on Thursday.
He was meeting with the political leaders at Stormont before attending the UK-Ireland Summit in Cork, along with several senior ministers from his Cabinet.
The meeting comes as Sir Keir faces renewed questioning over making Lord Peter Mandelson the UK’s Washington ambassador after a release of official documents revealed he had been warned of a “general reputational risk” over the appointment.
It also comes as governments are coming under pressure over a spike in the cost of fuel and home heating oil after the US and Israel began bombing Iran over a week ago.
Ms McDonald said in Belfast: “We’ve challenged the Prime Minister now to make an announcement, to come up with something that will actually make a difference to households right across the north that are struggling so badly and who, thus far, have not seen any kind of an adequate response from London, from the Prime Minister or from the Treasury.”
She added: “Keir Starmer has come to Ireland, to Belfast, to Cork.
“He has framed his visit in respect of cost-of-living pressures, and specifically the price gouging, but also the runaway cost of home heating oil, and he needs to come up with an answer for families all across the north.
“I fully expect, and we’ve made this plain to him, that he will have something constructive and meaningful to say in that regard when he comes and speaks to the press.”
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said it strikes “a strange chord” that political leaders in Northern Ireland would call on Sir Keir to act on high energy prices when there was funding “waiting to be dispensed”.
He said actions that could be taken on soaring fuel costs and “levers at his disposal” were a particular topic on Sir Keir’s agenda on Thursday.
Mr Robinson said: “He was as aghast as I was to discover that £81 million is sitting there waiting to be dispensed, to assist consumers in Northern Ireland, and yet we have an economy minister that hasn’t started work on a business case, and a party that still seems to be reluctant to agree that that figure is correct.”
He added: “It does strike a strange chord when some political leaders from Northern Ireland today will be saying that this Prime Minister needs to provide financial support, when he can stand back and say, I have done so, and £81 million is available for the people of Northern Ireland, and it’s up to your leaders to determine how best that support should be dispensed at this time of need.”
He said he also discussed the powersharing institutions, the budgetary shortfall in Northern Ireland, and post-Brexit related “nonsensical hangovers” on trade with Great Britain.
Ms McDonald said they also raised issues relating to Palestine, Iran and the UK’s arming of Israel, as well as the progress in establishing the Pat Finucane inquiry and the need for an inquiry into the death of Sean Brown, a Catholic father murdered by loyalists in 1997.
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