Pat Cullen and Sinn Fein are a match made in hell

When Pat Cullen, the leader of the nurse’s union, won her game of chicken with the Government over pay rises last year, she was unsatisfied. The 5 per cent wage increase she secured was, she felt, far short of the “revolution needed.”

So, what sort of revolution did she have in mind? Ms Cullen declared she would continue to “push ministers further” for more funds for nurses. However, the 59-year-old from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, also hinted at far grander ambitions. In August 2023, Ms Cullen, then general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), stated, “I believe the only hope for the NHS is reunification.”

Ms Cullen’s remarks caused unease among some of the nurses she represented, who presumably didn’t want to be dragged into “orange and green” politics. But she had her eyes on the bigger picture: Northern Ireland’s ailing health services could, to her mind, only be rescued by unification with the South. Alienating some of her union’s members was, ultimately, for the greater good. She has now put her money where her mouth should never have been, announcing today that she will seek the nomination for Sinn Fein as their candidate for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the upcoming general election.

Ms Cullen will contest Northern Ireland’s most marginal seat (Sinn Féin won by just 57 votes in 2019). But she made her political debut at a propitious time, as the Unionist parties appear somewhat disunited. The DUP and UUP have a gentleman’s agreement to field only one Unionist candidate for seats which would otherwise be likely won by Nationalists, preventing their vote from being split. But this year, the UUP has announced its candidate will run without making a deal with the DUP.

Ms Cullen would be a big name for any political party to add to the roster, but especially Sinn Fein, who have precious few heavyweight candidates. Her advocacy for NHS pay rises to cope with the cost of living crisis also makes her well-positioned to campaign on issues important to British voters, and in particular voters in Fermanagh and South Tyrone who are concerned about dwindling health services. The rural constituency’s South West Acute Hospital is underfunded and plagued by long wait times – and Ms Cullen’s opponent, the UUP’s Diana Armstrong, may struggle to convince voters she can deliver the same health benefits.

However, if elected, Ms Cullen would certainly refuse to sit in Westminster, as Sinn Fein does not recognise Parliament’s authority over Northern Ireland. Her campaign promises would, therefore, likely amount to sweet nothings delivered from TV studios, not hard (albeit incremental) policy changes. This would leave Northern Ireland with more government dysfunction, further exacerbating its healthcare and other service problems. Another abstentionist Sinn Fein MP will, in other words, prolong the tiresome arrangement whereby many Northern Ireland’s constituents are ignored and held hostage to Sinn Fein’s mono-manifesto: a united Ireland.

Sinn Fein’s win in Fermanagh and South Tyrone in 2017 and 2019 suggests this is a price many voters are willing to pay. Ms Cullen would nonetheless be a useful talking head for Sinn Fein, resuming her TV and radio appearances, criticising the Government’s performance on healthcare and living standards, albeit along more nakedly partisan lines.

She will no doubt make forceful arguments about the state of healthcare in the North, which performs significantly worse than other parts of the UK, especially in waiting times and A&E performance. But whether she can present Irish unification as the silver bullet to these problems is another matter. Ireland’s health services are beset by many of the same problems facing the NHS, and that’s before the administrative costs of integrating the two systems are accounted for. There is also little appetite for a united Ireland in the North, where around 50 per cent of people say they are against unification, compared to only 26 per cent in favour, according to a 2022 Ipsos opinion poll.

Ms Cullen pitched herself as a revolutionary and has followed through on that pledge. But it is unlikely that Sinn Fein, even with her credentials, will move the dial on unification in the North anytime soon. What is more certain is that Ms Cullen has further dented the public’s trust in high-ranking office holders in order to pursue her own political ambitions.