Political chaos at Westminster is pushing people away from the Union, Northern Ireland Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald said on Sunday, as speculation grew over a possible leadership challenge to Labour leader and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Archibald, who is Sinn Féin’s economy minister in Northern Ireland, told the ’s Sunday Politics show that what was unfolding in London was “an extension of the chaos that we have seen play out for the past 10 years.” She said it “does not matter” who occupies 10 Downing Street because “no British prime minister prioritises the interests of people here.”
Her remarks came as pressure and manoeuvring continued around Starmer, with former health secretary Wes Streeting setting out his desire for a “new special relationship” with the EU and an eventual return to the trade bloc. In that political atmosphere, Archibald used the interview to argue that the debate in London was feeding a wider reassessment of the Union in Northern Ireland.
“Brexit broke Britain economically, it has also broken it politically,” she said, describing Brexit as “a huge act of self-harm from a political and economic perspective.” She said people were “continuing to turn away from the Union, they recognise it is not in their interest,” and added: “What we are seeing is more and more people who are turning away from the union with Britain and recognising there is an alternative.”
Archibald pointed to the fact that there are now nationalist first ministers in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, saying that shift reflected changing political sentiment across these islands. Her comments linked the latest instability at Westminster with the longer-term consequences of Brexit, which she said had reshaped both politics and economics.
The friction in her message is that while she cast London’s turmoil as evidence of a constitutional drift away from the Union, the immediate dispute at Westminster is still being fought inside British politics, not over Northern Ireland’s future. But Archibald’s argument was plain: every fresh bout of chaos in London, she said, makes the case for the Union harder to sell to people who already believe there is an alternative.
For Sinn Féin, that is not just a talking point about another crisis in Downing Street. It is the political reading of the moment: instability in London, Brexit in the rear-view mirror and a growing nationalist confidence in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff are now being presented as part of the same story.
