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Colum Eastwood has said those who allegedly threatened Jeffrey Donaldson over the Brexit Protocol and Windsor Framework are not fit to ‘lace his boots’.

The Foyle MP made the observation after the DUP leader delivered an unusually animated speech at Westminster.

Mr. Eastwood said: “The right hon. Member for Lagan Valley and I have not agreed on much recently—in fact, he kind of drives me crazy—and we do not agree on much of what we have debated today or over the past couple of years, but I strongly believe that he comes at this from a position of strong belief.

"He comes at it in an attempt to represent his constituents. He comes at it from a good place. It is a different place from me and we want to end up in a different place—and I might argue that he is helping us along in that regard—but I say this very clearly: those people who have threatened him today could not lace his boots, and every single democrat in this House or elsewhere should stand in solidarity with any of us who are being attacked like that.”

Jeffrey Donaldson during a visit to an RIR base in the Nad Ali area of Helmand province in Afghanistan in 2011. In the House of Commons this week Mr. Donaldson referred to being a former member of the RIR.

Earlier Mr. Donaldson told MPs he was threatened over his attempts to secure assurances on the Brexit Protocol and Withdrawal Agreement and Windsor Framework that would allow the DUP to return to power-sharing.

He said: “I was threatened by those who never put on a uniform and who have not served our country. I checked out one of the people who threatened me on the register, and they did not vote at the last election.

"They cannot even come out to vote for our future in the Union, never mind doing anything about it, yet they are threatening me, and people like me who are working day and night to try to find solutions and to move NI forward on a basis that the vast majority of people can support.”

The exchanges occurred as MPs debated a bill to extend retrospectively the Executive formation period to February 8.

Colum Eastwood speaking in the British House of Commons on Wednesday when he said: "Those people who have threatened [Jeffrey Donaldson] today could not lace his boots."

Framework is unionist boil that must be lanced but not at cost of public service...

Mr. Eastwood said: “I think we are in a more hopeful place today than we have been. Last week, I was expecting to debate a much wider piece of legislation that would have seen us going in a different direction. If today’s Bill symbolises that we are getting closer, at least, to a resolution, we must welcome that and give it space.”

The SDLP leader spoke of multiple crises across the public sector.

"I find the state of our health service embarrassing. According to figures that I saw the other day on dementia diagnoses, some people in the western part of NI are waiting nearly six years for a diagnosis. In what modern democracy should that be seen as acceptable?” he asked.

Jeffrey Donaldson delivering an unusually unanimated speech in the British House of Commons on Wednesday.

Mr. Eastwood referenced the massive public sector strike last week.

"Last week 175,000 people were on picket lines across NI, in the cold and the snow. I think people will know that my preference is for the DUP to return to government as soon as possible, so that we have democratically elected politicians making these decisions and we can get the money into those people’s pockets, but I am furious that ordinary workers have been used as a political pawn because of our political failure. That is absolutely unacceptable,” he declared.

Colum Eastwood says those who threatened Jeffrey Donaldson are ‘not fit to lace his boots’

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