Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald TD met with British Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn MP to discuss the ongoing Brexit crisis and the need to defend and protect the Good Friday Agreement.

Speaking following the meeting Mary Lou McDonald said: "Brexit fundamentally alters the relationship between all of Ireland and Britain. It will cause economic hardship, undermine citizens’ rights and threatens the progress of the past 21 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement."

McDonald added: "Nobody in Ireland has consented to Brexit.  The majority of people in the North voted to oppose it. There is no good Brexit. The Withdrawal Agreement and the Backstop was negotiated between Theresa May’s Government and the EU. It provides the minimum safeguards that are required to protect our economy, rights and avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland. The backstop provides a permanent guarantee and is the bottom line."

The Sinn Féin president continued: "The EU agreed in April 2017 that in the event of Irish reunification the whole of Ireland would remain in the EU together. The British government want to impose Brexit on the North.  If that happens, the pathway back into the EU is clear. All shades of opinion in the north are now questioning the economic wisdom of the union with Britain.

We made clear to the Leader of the Opposition the need to protect The Good Friday Agreement which Labour helped negotiate and to ensure that a hard border on the island of Ireland is avoided."