As mentioned earlier, tonight’s BBC general election TV debate featuring politicians from Northern Ireland’s five main parties has finished. There were no closing remarks from the politicians, instead Tara Mills closed the debate by thanking all those involved, including the audience for their questions and remarks. The main topics of the night’s debate were health, trust in politics, the union and Israel-Gaza. Here are some of the key lines from each of the five who were behind the podiums this evening: DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, denied there would be a cut of £184m to the health budget and said the DUP had highlighted that “Northern Ireland doesn’t get sufficient funding to provide public service that we need”. “We would far rather government had not come down at all and people recognise this place works properly and positively on the basis of consensus,” said Robinson. He added that the DUP wants to “build on the good progress we have made” which “would not have been made without our stance”. Alliance party leader, Naomi Long, clashed with Robinson, stating that there’s no doubt that the collapse of the Assembly has “damaged our public services … and public confidence”. Long said that “it has damaged public confidence, because people now know our Stormont as it stands today is no more stable than the day before it collapsed the last time”.
Long said her party “want to be part of the conversation about constitutional change”. She added: “We are open to those conversations but what we are not going to do is vote along ideologically-driven lines”. Robbie Butler, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP), said health was the “number one topic on the doorstep”. He said abstentionism in Stormont had affected health services, stating that the UUP “didn’t take their players off the pitch”.
Butler also said that the “state of the mental health of the nation is in the pits because of the politics”. He said mental health services are a main focus for the UUP in Westminster but says “consistent government” in Stormont is required. SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood, said “there isn’t enough money in Stormont” and that the health service is “at the point of collapse”. He said that although the SDLP are happy to work with other parties the decisions are being taken at Westminster. He said Northern Ireland needed to go with “one single voice and ask the British government to properly fund this health service”.
Eastwood also said he was “all for more fiscal powers” but questioned how the public could trust politicians with it if “we can’t even commit to staying in government”. “The first thing politicians around here tonight can do is all commit to not bring Stormont down again, but they won’t do it,” said Eastwood. Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard said that there was an understanding that after 14 years of Tory austerity that public services have been “absolutely devastated”. Hazzard said that one of the most significant developments was that the British government had finally recognised that Stormont has been underfunded. When asked if he would visit the White House next year if US president Joe Biden is re-elected and the Israel-Gaza conflict is ongoing, Hazzard said his party “will continue to go wherever we need to go to be the voice of the Palestinian people where their voice needs to be heard”.