Sunak calls on unionists to return to Northern Ireland power-sharing

UK leader in Belfast to mark 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement

Rishi Sunak delivers a speech on the final day of a conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, at Queen's University in Belfast. AFP

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday made a direct appeal to Northern Ireland's unionists to resume power-sharing under the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Sunak said he “shared people's frustrations” at the political limbo that has clouded the 25th anniversary of the peace deal.

The power-sharing assembly set up by the 1998 deal has been suspended for more than a year after the Democratic Unionist Party walked out in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements.

The DUP has yet to return to power-sharing with pro-Irish republicans, despite a revised Brexit deal that Mr Sunak pitched as a “breakthrough moment” addressing unionist concerns.

He made the plea at a conference at Queen's University Belfast attended by dignitaries including former US president Bill Clinton.

Making power-sharing work would bolster the argument of pro-UK unionists, said Mr Sunak, whose Conservative Party traditionally identifies with their cause.

“I'm a proud unionist. We passionately believe that Northern Ireland is stronger within the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom is stronger with Northern Ireland within it,” he said.

“But we must also build support beyond those of us who already identify as unionists. We have to show that devolved government within the United Kingdom works for Northern Ireland.

“The fact that the institutions have been down for nine of the last 25 years should be a source of profound concern. Over the long term that will not bolster the cause of unionism — I believe that deeply.”

The DUP said the Brexit deal signed in 2020 severed Northern Ireland's ties with Britain by imposing bureaucratic checks on trade from the mainland.

It voted against Mr Sunak's Brexit deal in March after objecting to the fact that some EU law would still apply to Northern Ireland.

In his speech Mr Sunak paid tribute to architects of the Good Friday peace deal, which he described as “one of the most extraordinary political achievements of our lifetimes”.

In a rare salute to a Labour Party predecessor, he praised Britain's then-prime minister Tony Blair for keeping negotiating parties at the table.

He said the “courage, imagination, and perseverance” shown back then had “brought an imperfect but enduring peace” after 30 years of fighting.

The Good Friday Agreement — in pictures

Mr Clinton earlier described Northern Ireland as a “different place” to when he made the first visit by a sitting US president in 1995.

He praised two key architects of the deal, the late John Hume and David Trimble, for looking beyond their electoral fortunes in 1998.

“Most peace agreements fall part in less than a decade,” Mr Clinton said. “That’s worth remembering.”

Reflecting on the devolved institutions, he said it was “time to get this show on the road”.

“This whole deal was never supposed to be an engine of obstruction. The agreement was never supposed to be used to make sure there could be no self-government,” he said.

US special envoy Joe Kennedy, a great-nephew of former president John F. Kennedy, called for greater prosperity to underpin peace in Northern Ireland.

He said part of his role was to “make the case to the next set of global partners about why they should come here”.

His comments came after US President Joe Biden last week said sustained peace could attract lucrative American investment to Northern Ireland.

Mr Biden visited Belfast before a three-day stop in the Republic of Ireland, where some of his ancestors lived. His trip passed off peacefully after fears of violence from dissidents who reject the Good Friday Agreement.