Don’t try to bypass unionists - consent needed for Good Friday Agreement reform, warns Rishi Sunak

The Prime Minister was speaking to an audience of distinguished international guests at Queen's University Belfast who were gathered to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the groundbreaking peace deal which saw an end to almost daily terrorist violence in NI in 1998.

Mr Sunak said he understood the frustration of widespread calls for changes to the governance arrangements to prevent regular collapses of the assembly and executive in Northern Ireland.

The DUP is currently exercising its veto to blockade Stormont in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements, which it sees as weakening the union with GB in constitutional and trade terms.

In 2017, Sinn Fein also collapsed the ministerial executive for several years amid a furore about a botched green energy scheme.

The Government has faced calls from some of the DUP’s main rivals, particularly the Alliance Party, to change the rules to allow the majority of MLAs to get back to work.

But Mr Sunak said that even talks about reforming the GFA would need widespread consent.

“Let me also say to those who would seek to reform the institutions right now – I understand your frustrations,” he said.

“But history reminds us that nothing in Northern Ireland has ever been achieved by trying to get round one community or another.

“So any conversation about reform can only begin once the institutions are up and running again - and if it attracts widespread consent.”

His comments echoed an almost identical warning from former Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier this month. He said that there is a case for reviewing the GFA.

“But the realistic truth is if you were to act, for example, in direct contravention of a large part of unionist opinion, it wouldn’t work, it just wouldn’t work," he said.

Mr Sunak said that the late SDLP leader John Hume over his entire career “never relented in his insistence on non-violence”.

He added: “David Trimble took enormous risks to do what he thought was right for the Union. And they were rightly honoured as the pre-eminent architects of peace, with a joint Nobel peace prize.”

Bertie Ahern also showed the wisdom and statecraft to see the historic opportunity, he said.

“At a critical moment, he recognised unionist concerns over the proposed North-South arrangements and stepped back.

“Trimble himself, in his last public appearance, at this university, just weeks before he passed away … embraced his old counterpart and thanked Bertie for giving him the space to act.”

(The prime minister did not refer to the fact that the late Lord Trimble had repeatedly and forcefully voiced strong opposition to NI remaining within the EU single market after Brexit – which he saw as undermining the Union.)

Mr Sunak praised those who made the peace deal as having required “leaps of imagination” that enabled them to “conceive of a system for sharing power between traditions ... to design an agreement with three strands of equal importance ... to enshrine the principle of consent – so that Northern Ireland remains a part of the United Kingdom for as long as its people wish ... while protecting the aspirations of those who seek a different future through peaceful means”.

He also noted that “in the spirit of perseverance” it was fitting to recognise the contribution of the security forces.

“Like my predecessors, I acknowledge that at times they made mistakes. But we must also recognise their bravery, suffering, and sacrifice – and that of the police.

“Without their courageous service, there would have been no peace process at all. They created the conditions that ultimately allowed their own presence on the streets to be reduced or entirely withdrawn.”

He believes there are now two tasks ahead.

“First, to remove the biggest block to the institutions returning. That’s why, when I came into office, I made it a priority to fix the Northern Ireland Protocol. And we were deeply conscious of the lessons of history as we did so.

“That’s why our aims were to balance and respect the aspirations of all parts of the community, protect the relationships between East and West as much as North and South and persist through careful, detailed negotiation.”

His second task, he said, is to keep working to “persuade all parts of the community” that returning to the institutions is the best path.

“And we will do that. We will talk, we will listen, we will try to persuade – and we will not give up.”

He appealed directly to the “diverse” unionist voices whose concerns with the protocol he has focused on addressing.

“I urge you to work with us to get Stormont up and running again. That’s the right thing to do on its own terms. And I’m convinced that it’s also the right thing to do for our Union.

“I am a proud unionist. We believe passionately that Northern Ireland is stronger within the UK … and the UK is stronger with Northern Ireland within it.

“But we must also build support beyond those of us who already identify as unionists.

“To do that, we have to show that devolved government within the United Kingdom works for Northern Ireland.”

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson responded later saying the “damaged foundations” of devolved government must have unionist as well as nationalist support for sustainable devolved government.

“We seek to re-establish the Northern Ireland Assembly by finishing the job of fully restoring Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom,” he said in a statement.

“We stand ready to work with the prime minister and his government to ensure that stable devolution is delivered through sustainable and balanced outcomes that have solid foundations based on the support of unionists as well as nationalists.

“We must get the foundations right. Short-term fixes will lead to short-term devolution and will do a disservice to those trying to make the institutions work.

“We are in the business of finishing the job and ensuring that NI’s position within the Union is not continually undermined.

“Northern Ireland will only ever move forward if we all move forward together.”