Former Soldier and Tory MP:

Posted By: July 18, 2016

My Absolute Revulsion and Anger at Mc Guinness

A FORMER British soldier who has spoken of his “revulsion and anger” at Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness was one of two politicians appointed to the Northern Ireland Office yesterday.
Claire Simpson. Irish News (Belfast). Monday, July 19, 2016
Kris Hopkins (53), a Conservative MP for Keighley in West Yorkshire, was appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the NIO. Scottish-born politician Andrew Dunlop, who sits in the House of Lords as Lord Dunlop, was also appointed as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.

A former private in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, Mr Hopkins served in Northern Ireland, as well as Kenya and Germany. He was elected as an MP in 2010, after spending several years lecturing in media theory, communications and digital media. Following the 2010 publication of the  Saville Report into Bloody Sunday, Mr Hopkins told the Yorkshire Post he supported former British prime minister David Cameron’s apology. He said as a young soldier the “IRA tried to shoot me on the New Lodge road [in north Belfast], and tried to blow me up in a 16-round mortar attack in Bessbrook [south Armagh]”.

Mr Hopkins said he supported Sinn Féin’s involvement in politics but had experienced difficulties with some aspects of the peace process. He said at a Tory Party conference meeting with Mr McGuinness, he felt “absolute revulsion and anger” when the Sinn Féin politician walked into the room.

“But as he spieled his spiel, and as the media and the secretary of state challenged him, I realised that that was the place where we needed to be,” he said.

He said Sinn Féin MPs should take up their seats in the House of Commons “where they can be held to account”.

“That is the politics of the future,” he said.

Lord Dunlop’s new role means he holds the same post in Scotland and the north. A former chief adviser to David Cameron, he helped devise the British government’s campaign to keep Scotland in the union, ahead of the 2014 independence referendum He was first appointed as under secretary of state at the Scotland Office in 2015. The appointments come after MP James Brokenshire was named as new secretary of state last week by Prime Minister Theresa May. The MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup previously served as immigration minister in the Home Office. Mr Brokenshire (48), who campaigned for the UK to remain within the European Union, succeeded Leave campaigner Theresa Villiers.