Former top Blair aide warns Brexit MPs breaching Good Friday Agreement will re-ignite Troubles
2 min read
Violence will be sparked in Northern Ireland if the Good Friday Agreement is breached in the pursuit of a hard Brexit, a former top aide to Tony Blair has warned anti-EU campaigners.
Jonathan Powell - who was instrumental in clinching the historic peace deal 20 years ago - took a shot at Brexit-backing figures who have suggested the Belfast Agreement has outlived its purpose.
The former Downing Street chief of staff said he could “guarantee the Troubles would come back” if the deal was unilaterally breached.
Prominent Tories Owen Paterson and Daniel Hannan were joined by Labour former minister Kate Hoey last month in arguing the Good Friday Agreement may have run its course.
The comments sparked outrage among Remain supporters who saw the position as a bid to resolve the Northern Ireland debate in the Brexit negotiations.
The deal stipulates that the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic must remain open - but the need for customs controls after Brexit has put it in jeopardy.
A letter from Boris Johnson to Theresa May this month also appeared to admit the border could be hardened to cope with Brexit - something the Government has ruled out.
Mr Powell, who was the UK's chief negotiator on the deal, said those who advocate scrapping the GFA had “got away a bit easily” with their comments.
“If you actually unilaterally breached the Good Friday Agreement and went back to one party rule I do think you could guarantee the Troubles would come back,” he told the Progressive Britain podcast.
“I don't think the Troubles would come back just because there’s a hard border - but if you actually breached the Good Friday Agreement then you would undermine all of that work.”
He also argued that breaching the treaty would send the wrong signal just as the UK is gearing up to sign a new legal text with the Republic in the form of the Brexit deal.
'SICKENING'
Mr Blair himself has condemned the proposal to scrap the Belfast Agreement.
Ahead of a speech in Brussels today he told Radio 4 it was “sickening” that there were some willing to “sacrifice the Good Friday Agreement on the altar of Brexit”.
DUP MPs Sammy Wilson and Jim Shannon also weighed in last week to suggest the deal should be scrapped.
Brussels yesterday proposed keeping Northern Ireland in the customs union and part of the single market as a “backstop” option if no other arrangement is reached for after Brexit.
But Theresa May said the suggestion - which would effectively create a new border in the Irish Sea - could never be signed off by a UK Prime Minister.
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