A SINN FÉIN MP in Northern Ireland has announced that she plans to step down and seek the party’s nomination to run in the EU elections in a constituency in the Republic.

Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew wants to run as an MEP in the Midlands North West constituency this year.

In a statement, Gildernew, who has served as both an MP and an MLA over the last 25 years, said that Ireland “needs to be at the fore in setting the direction of the European Union in the years ahead”.

I want to play a role in making that happen by bringing my experience of negotiation and dealing with EU institutions as a former Agriculture Minister to the job of standing up for Irish interests in the European Parliament.

Gildernew was Stormont’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development from 2007 to 2011.

She was first elected in the Westminster elections in 2001, later losing the seat in 2015 but winning it back in 2017. As with all elected Sinn Féin MPs, she does not take her seat in Westminster.

“The European Union played a key role in ensuring Brexit did not create a hard border in Ireland and I believe the North’s future must be within the European Union, as part of a United Ireland,” Gildernew said.

She said that Ireland “needs stronger representatives in the European Parliament”.

“A strong Sinn Féin team will call out the EU when needed if it is not acting in the best interest of the Irish people or when EU office holders overstep their remit as the EU Commission President did in recent months.”

The next EU elections are due to take place between 6 and 9 June 2024.

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Ballots will also be cast in Ireland in local elections for city and county councils.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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