Dublin's claim over Northern Ireland was wrong and illegal says Arlene Foster - adding that she would vote against the Good Friday Agreement again if she could

​She stressed that this was the widely-held unionist view, after the committee chairman Simon Hoare cited the “huge step” the Irish state made in relinquishing its claim, and wondered whether unionists were failing to appreciate that.

Mrs Foster also said that, were it to be voted on again today, she would still oppose the Good Friday Agreement.

She made the comments during a sitting of the Commons’ NI Affairs Committee, during which a possible DUP return to Stormont was also discussed.

Tory MP Mr Hoare – who recently faced a call to resign after trying to claim motoring fines on his expenses, and who has been perceived by some unionists as overly sympathetic to nationalism – posed this question to the ex-DUP leader:

“Do you think the unionist community, in all its manifestations, has forgotten the enormous step the republic made of constitutionally giving up its territorial claim?”

The Irish Republic’s constitution used to state that “the national territory consists of the whole island of Ireland, its islands and the territorial seas” – but this was altered after 1998 Agreement.

“Well you see,” explained Baroness Foster, “for a lot of unionists, including myself, it was an illegal claim that should have been challenged on many many occasions, including by the EU, but it wasn’t.

"It’s something that’s wrong – it shouldn’t have been there in the first place. So getting rid of something that shouldn’t have been there in the first place isn’t really a big thing.”

DUP MP Carla Lockhart also quizzed her former boss, saying “you were one of the biggest advocates of the ‘No’ campaign” against the 1998 deal while still a member of the UUP.

"Would you like to remind us why that was the case, and if today 25 years on you’d still take that stand.”

“I would,” replied Mrs Foster.

“Allowing prisoners out of jail, people who had committed some of the most henious crimes, without serving their due sentence was morally wrong.

"I didn’t agree with the Patton Commission either. I come from a policing family and am very proud of what they did during the Troubles, standing between anarchy, frankly, and the community – and I mean the whole community.

"Obviously there were technical issues as well...

"So yes, I absolutely understand the greater number of people in NI voted for the Belfast Agreement and as such it has to be accepted. I’m a democrat.

"That doesn’t mean to say I still wouldn’t vote against it – I would.”