Julian Smith Northern Ireland Secretary sacked by Johnson (peacemaker in NI) [View all]

RTÉ
February 13,2020
By Tommie Gorman

Julian Smith became the first casualty of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government reshuffle after being unceremoniously dumped from the Northern Ireland Office... Appointed last July, sacked by Boris Johnson today, Julian Smith is very obviously unacceptable within Boris Johnson's administration, strengthened by its December general election victory.

He was a Remainer and an active Chief Whip when Theresa May was prime minister...In his time based in Belfast, Julian Smith literally made history. The deal that led to the restoration of power-sharing last month, would not have happened without the drive of the talks' co-chairs, Julian Smith and Tánaiste Simon Coveney.

It created a new dynamism in British Irish relationships a very cohesive Northern Ireland Secretary-Minister for Foreign Affairs relationship. When Boris Johnson visited Stormont to laud the return of devolved government last month, he almost gave his Northern Ireland Secretary the vote of confidence. Today he used the wiggle room to sack him.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar replied on Twitter saying Mr Smith is one of the finest British politicians...
Elsewhere, Colum Eastwood, leader of the SDLP, one of the five parties that re-entered the Stormont Assembly, said Mr Smith's approach had been central to breaking the logjam after his predecessors had tried and failed in successive talks... "It tells you all you need to know about Boris Johnson's attitude to the North... Sacking the most successful Secretary of State in a decade shows Johnson's dangerous indifference to us."



https://www.rte.ie/news/uk/2020/0213/1114964-uk-cabinet-reshuffle/

Blessed are the peacemakers. A man respected and admired by all parties in NI and who obtained the trust and an agreement from all sides in the midst of Brexit. He then gets the boot from “Little Trump”. This is bad.