Mary Lou McDonald appears on Good Morning Britain to call for a border poll
McDonald made her case for the reunification of the island of Ireland and fielded questions regarding Northern Ireland's economic state on the programme.
'We are now 27 years on from since the Good Friday Agreement, as we all know, a historic moment where we settle on the institutional arrangements to end what was a conflict that ran for centuries,' she said.
'And at the heart of that agreement is a commitment to referendums to make the decision on partition. Just remember, more than a century ago Ireland was partitioned down the barrel of a British gun. There was no democracy involved, it was imposed on the island.'
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She said that partition has been 'deeply damaging' for Ireland and has damaged the relationship between Britain and Ireland.
Given Ireland's economic position, McDonald said, 'Irish unity makes sense.'
When it was put to her that Northern Ireland is economically effectively 'running at a loss', McDonald said that the six-county region is not economically viable as it is 'cut off from its natural political, social, and economic engine'.
She said that 'it makes no sense to partition' the country given its small size.
Sinn Féin have long stressed that they want a border poll to happen within the decade.
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