Unionists have hit out at Sinn Fein after the party said the European Union could help create a united Ireland and split up the UK. Sinn Fein's national chairman Declan Kearney said EU institutions would be needed to “become directly involved”.

Sinn Fein is the largest party in Northern Ireland and has called for referendums on Irish unity. But Mr Kearney’s comments have sparked anger from unionists. Democratic Unionist Party peer Lord Dodds told The Telegraph: “The recent general election in the Irish Republic showed there was little appetite for Irish unity, with Sinn Fein failing spectacularly, falling from red-hot favourites for government to also-rans.

“Sinn Fein alone is talking it up. This latest stunt will get nowhere with the people who matter here in Northern Ireland.”

The leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice party and MP for North Antrim, Jim Allister, said Sinn Fein’s demands were unsurprising and criticised the EU’s treatment of Northern Ireland post-Brexit.

He claimed to the broadsheed that the Northern Ireland Protocol - now known as the Windsor Framework - was designed to “further the plan of separatists to break up the UK”.

He added: “We now have a situation where, in 300 areas of law, Northern Ireland is ruled by colonial masters in Brussels who subject us to rules we do not make and cannot change.”

Meanwhile, Bobby McDonagh, a former Irish ambassador to the UK, Italy and the EU, told the newspaper that Irish unity was not likely in the short-term.

Mr Kearney made his comments during an event at the European Parliament last week.

He said: “Europe played a vital diplomatic, political and economic role in delivering the Irish peace process. The transition to Irish unity will also need to be planned and carefully managed.

“Colonial rule, partition and separate states in Ireland have all failed. Unity, through self determination, is the way forward. The EU can play a role in supporting the peaceful, democratic pathway to securing that objective.”

He added: “A century of partition is enough. It is time for Irish national self-determination. It is time for the United Nations Charter and provisions of the Good Friday Agreement to be respected and applied.

“We are on the cusp of a new and exciting era. Our appeal to Europe is to become part of the conversation; to share in the ambition. The EU should help us open up the next phase of the peace process, and the achievement of reconciliation, reunification and a new Ireland for all.”