Sinn Fein MP Conor Murphy will today warn that the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) is in danger of “unravelling” under unionist attacks without support.

Mr Murphy will use a public meeting in Parliament this evening to call on British colleagues to raise their voices in defence of the historic peace deal.

Speaking to the Star ahead of the meeting, he said: “Our clear view is that the agreement is under attack from an anti-agreement unionist axis.

“Unionist parties are trying to frustrate the workings of the GFA by frustrating progress on a number of issues and trying to bog us down around parades and flags.

“We need to make people aware across all the British parties that things are unravelling in terms of the GFA. It needs attention from people who are supportive of it.”

The Good Friday Agreement was signed in May 1998 after being backed overwhelmingly on both sides of the existing border.

That paved the way for the creation of the 108-member Northern Irish Assembly at Stormont and a power-sharing Executive, although direct London rule was restored between 2002 and 2007 when co-operation between parties broke down.

Tory Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said there was a “significant increase in the degree and pace of engagement” at talks facilitated by the government earlier this month.

Mr Murphy welcomed the talks but warned that the dysfunctional way Stormont institutions have been working since the 2011 Assembly elections “isn’t sustainable going forward.”

And he said the “determination to implement Tory ideology” by cutting the Executive’s block grant and imposing welfare cuts has “exacerbated political problems.”

“The government is in danger of sleepwalking into a calamity,” added Mr Murphy.

Irish in Britain chief executive Jennie McShannon, who is also speaking at this evening’s meeting, raised the danger that poverty poses to the peace deal.

She told the Star: “We share concerns about what seems to be arrested progress.

“Cohesion is always affected where there is a high level of poverty and we’re concerned about the impact it’s having on the delicate social situation in the North.”