Sunak and Starmer may not want to talk about Brexit, but these party leaders certainly do.
Five years ago it was indisputably the Brexit choice, but this time it has become something of an elephant in the room.
But in Northern Ireland, neither party leader is shy about talking about the impact of Britain’s exit from the EU.
Our David Blevins, Senior Ireland Correspondent has spoken to everyone about the legacy of the 2016 referendum and how a new government in Westminster could change things.
As David points out, to “get Brexit done,” the Conservative government put a trade border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, something that was previously unthinkable.
Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Féin:
“I think there is an opportunity now with what potentially looks like a Labor government coming into play to reverse the damage of Brexit.
“And, in fact, I hope we get to the point where we completely reverse the Brexit decision.
“That may not be the direction Labor is heading, but I think there is an opportunity to reset relations, critically between London and Dublin, because they have been so fractured.”
Emma Little-Pengelly, DUP:
“The Conservative Party and the UK government ruined Brexit and Northern Ireland was a victim of that.
“We have called the Conservative Party about this at every stage.
“We had to fight incredibly hard to try to repair the damage caused by the decisions made by the Conservative Party in government.
“But of course, we were the ones fighting for it, while others were agitating and pushing for that really bad deal to be rigorously implemented.”
Naomi Long, Alliance:
“What we need to do going forward is say… how can we make the benefits of the Windsor Framework work in our favour?
“We have a unique position in Northern Ireland in terms of trade: we can trade freely with Great Britain, we can trade freely with the Republic of Ireland, but more than that, we have one foot in the European Union.”
Colum Eastwood, SDLP:
“I would say that Brexit has been a disaster for the whole of the United Kingdom, economically and in many other ways, but we feel it much more acutely here because we share a border with the European Union.
“We had to work incredibly hard to put things back together after the disaster caused by Brexit, Boris Johnson and the DUP.
“From our perspective, there is no better outcome than being back within the European Union.”
Doug Beattie, UUP:
“Brexit was a decisive moment.
“This absolutely undermined the cohesion of the UK, and I think we can see the effects of that even today.
“And any government that comes in – and we all think it will be a Labor government – I think they will have to work on that cohesion as one of their main outcomes.”
