Mr Burghart made the comments when speaking at the Northern Ireland Conservatives’ party conference on Saturday at the Clayton Hotel in Belfast.
The shadow Secretary of State told the News Letter: “We very much believe that, as the Conservative and Unionist Party, we should be here making sure that the politics of Northern Ireland are represented at a national level and that national politics are representative of local concerns.”
Mr Burghart claimed that the Labour party’s attitude to Stormont, and other regions of the UK, has been to “devolve and forget”.
“Over the past eighteen months, we’ve seen how the Labour government’s policies have had a real and negative impact on Northern Ireland,” he added.
“I’m thinking about the family farms tax and the increase in national insurance contributions. The Conservative and Unionist party is the only party that stands in Northern Ireland that can take that fight to the Labour government on a national level.”
The local Conservatives’ annual gathering included discussions on the economy, agriculture and policing, while the national party’s leader, Kemi Badenoch, delivered a video address. Mrs Badenoch told delegates that, “The Union is only safe with the Conservatives.”
The conference also heard from the Conservative Party’s national chairman, the MP for Thirsk and Malton Kevin Hollinrake. Mr Hollinrake said that the Tories were best placed to challenge the Labour party, and presented data that suggested the Conservatives had the highest ‘ceiling’ of voters who would consider supporting them.
The agriculture panel, which included Mr Burghart, as well as William Irvine and Alexander Kinnear from the Ulster’s Farmer’s Union, highlighted persistent problems with sourcing veterinary medicines, seeds for crops and used machinery from Great Britain, due to the Irish Sea border.
The assistant chief Constable of the PSNI, Ryan Henderson, highlighted ongoing problems with police funding, in a discussion alongside Liam Kelly, chairman of the Police Federation, and Mukesh Sharma, the chair of the policing board.
During the same debate, the shadow Secretary of State reiterated the Conservatives’ opposition to the government’s legacy reforms and suggested that “there will be repercussions for national security,” if the police service in Northern Ireland is starved of funding.
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