SF ‘didn’t reflect’ concerns on immigration – McDonald

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said that the party failed to have the backs of their supporters and to listen to their concerns on immigration.

Ms McDonald was speaking after Sinn Féin met in Dublin to consider its poor performance in the local and European elections.

Asked whether the party’s evolving position on immigration would risk alienating some of its left-leaning voters, she said that community concerns must be listened to and that many of those concerns related to local resources.

“I think there was a frustration among a section of our base that they weren’t being heard,” she said.

“And there was a belief that we didn’t have their backs and we didn’t reflect adequately, consistently and loudly enough the concerns that decent people have,” she added.

Sinn Féin will publish a policy paper on immigration in the next ten days, although no specifics were revealed today.

Ms McDonald said she did not agree that the party was adopting a tougher stance on immigration.

“I would dispute that we are taking a harder line, we are taking a clearer line,” she said.

She said that “one of the criticisms” in the review regarded “the lack of clarity”.

She said: “So, we are a republican party, we are anti-racist, we are for human rights standards, we are for the application of international law, none of that has changed.

“We are a party of the left.”

Ms McDonald also said the party got it wrong by supporting the referendums on family and care, which were defeated in March.

The party’s national leadership initiated a review of the recent elections and it was discussed at today’s Ard Comhairle meeting.

However, the document has not been published.

Ms McDonald said she would lead the party into the next general election, adding that she enjoyed the full confidence of the party north and south.

But she acknowledged that there are some criticisms of her performance as leader.

“They have told me that they want me to be firm, they have told me that they want me to be my absolute authentic self,” she said.

“They have told me that they expect me to bring policy in respect of our policy offerings,” she added.

Ms McDonald said she was told that she did not pay enough attention to what the base was saying.