Former Labour frontbencher says Irish reunification referendum a 'sensible option'
2 min read
A former Labour frontbencher has given his backing to a poll on reuniting Ireland, calling it a "realisable and sensible option".
St Helens North MP Conor McGinn spoke out after a major Irish parliament report called for a referendum “in the next decade”.
The report, written by the parliament’s joint committee on the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, calls for a special post-Brexit status for Northern Ireland, with no hard border with the Irish Republic.
The status of the border is one of the key issues in the Article 50 negotiations between Brexit Secretary David Davis and the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has already expressed his opposition to any new frontier on the island, saying his government will "not design a border for the Brexiteers".
The committee’s report attacks the British government for failing to prepare properly for the EU referendum result, and urges them not to repeat the mistake in the event of a poll on reuniting Ireland.
Committee spokesman Mark Daly, a senator for the Fianna Fail party, said: “If the government continues to play fast and loose with the Good Friday agreement and keeps pursuing a hard Brexit leading to a hard border - against the wishes of the majority of people in Northern Ireland - then that view will only become more widespread both in Britain and on the island of Ireland.”
Mr McGinn, who hails from the town of Newry in Northern Ireland, said yesterday’s report showed that the case for a referendum was gathering pace.
“Brexit has put Ireland high up the political agenda at Westminster, and many people here are beginning to see that a united and agreed Ireland is not just an aspiration for an unspecified time in the future but a realisable, sensible and practical option to start planning for now,”
“If the government continues to play fast and loose with the Good Friday agreement and keeps pursuing a hard Brexit leading to a hard border — against the wishes of the majority of people in Northern Ireland — then that view will only become more widespread both in Britain and on the island of Ireland.”
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