SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood MP has said that attempts to erect new borders and create new divisions between the people of these islands must be resisted by everyone committed to reconciliation and the Good Friday Agreement.
The Foyle MP said that nationalism and unionism have a strategic common interest in cooperating to prevent the British Government inflicting further damage on people here.
The UK will leave the EU at 11 pm tonight, Friday, January 31, ending 47 years of membership.
Said Mr Eastwood: “Brexit is an act of constitutional violence inflicted on the people of Northern Ireland and Scotland by an English electorate.
“We have not and will not consent to being dragged out of the European Union.
“The powerful message from each of the devolved administrations last week when they united to withhold consent for the Withdrawal Agreement demonstrates the scale of opposition across these islands.
“The fight to defend the interests of people in the North is not over.
“The first phase of Brexit will finish at 11pm tonight but the battle to secure trading arrangements which provide businesses here with ambidextrous market access begins in earnest.
“We should not be forced to pay the price for a decision taken in English suburbs.
“But the impact of Brexit has always been more far reaching than trade. New borders and new barriers will have a deep psychological effect on the people of this island.
“The scar of partition still burns within the nationalist community.
“We understand the impact of being severed from your constitutional ambition.
“It’s that ancestral memory that should drive us to show generosity to our unionist neighbours who are facing the prospect of a Brexit sea border.
“A new scar on the psyche of a community here is no cause for celebration.
“Nationalism and unionism have always had a strategic common interest in making this place work, even if those operating the institutions of the Agreement have not always seen it that way.
“That imperative is enhanced by Brexit. Every party in the Assembly opposes Boris Johnson’s deal, we now need to cooperate to prevent further damage in the next phase of the negotiations.
“The European ideals of cooperation and solidarity have never been more important,” added Mr Eastwood.
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