The Sinn Fein first minister of Northern Ireland said she had been “incredulous” that the British Government had put in an order with a Belfast plant for missiles for Ukraine.

Sir Keir Starmer announced on Sunday that the Thales plant in east Belfast would supply 5,000 air defence missiles to Ukraine in a deal worth up to £1.6 billion.

But Michelle O’Neill, the vice-president of the republican party, said she would rather see the money invested in public services than in “weapons of war”.

During the Troubles, Sinn Fein was the political wing of the IRA, which killed 1,800 people between 1969 and its final ceasefire, in 1997.