The First Minister of Northern Ireland and other Sinn Fein leaders will boycott St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the White House over Donald Trump’s call to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Michelle O’Neill, the First Minister, and Mary Lou McDonald, the party president and leader of the opposition in the Irish Parliament, made the announcement on Friday morning in Dublin.

They said the decision to snub the Washington gala events in March was a “principled stance in response to the call for the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people from Gaza”.

Mr Trump shocked the world on Jan 25 when he suggested the US could take over the Gaza Strip as part of a Middle East peace plan during a press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu.

His claims that Gazans could be forced to live elsewhere led to accusations he was promoting “ethnic cleansing”.