{"id":751547,"date":"2026-08-27T15:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751547\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T15:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:56:12","slug":"andy-burnham-says-a-united-ireland-poll-is-off-the-table-during-first-ni-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751547\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham says a united Ireland poll is ‘off the table’ during first NI visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking ahead of Burnham’s visit, First Minister Michelle O’Neill called for a “fair budget settlement that actually works for public services”.<\/p>\n

“The reality is that we are so underfunded – have been for years,” she told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“If Andy Burnham wants to make a difference, then he can make a difference by actually changing the funding arrangement, because what we have currently does not cut it.”<\/p>\n

Talks between Treasury officials and the executive have been taking place over the summer.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Northern Ireland secretary Sir Chris Bryant said it was “shocking” that a Stormont budget had yet to be agreed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He said the executive could consider more “self-help” in the form of revenue-raising, but where there are “significant” budgetary pressures he wanted to be able to help.<\/p>\n

Before the prime minister meets politicians he will hear from young people about the issues that impact their lives and their aspirations for the future. <\/p>\n

This will include the prime minister speaking to teenagers and staff involved in mentoring schemes within Belfast’s creative music scene – which seeks to elevate local artists and promote the city as a UNESCO City of Music.<\/p>\n

“People in Northern Ireland want more breathing space from the cost of living, good, well-paid jobs and opportunities for their children,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Political point-scoring in the past has made this harder, not easier. We need to be better, so I want to work with the Northern Ireland Executive and the main political parties to try and make a real difference to communities here, and that’s the message I’ll be taking into my meetings later,” he added.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, Burnham travelled to south Wales<\/a> – his first official visit to the country since he became prime minister.<\/p>\n

Before the trip Burnham announced plans to bring together the leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in the autumn for a summit to help boost the UK economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking ahead of Burnham’s visit, First Minister Michelle O’Neill called for a “fair budget settlement that actually works…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-751547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}