UK PM in N.Ireland urges unionists to get govt ‘up and running’

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday demanded that unionists end their boycott of the devolved government in Northern Ireland, in a speech marking 25 years of peace in the divided territory.

“I urge you to work with us to get Stormont up and running again. That’s the right thing to do in its own terms. And I’m convinced it’s also the right thing to do for our (UK) union,” Sunak said in Belfast.

Vowing to deploy the “full force” of the UK government to bolster Northern Ireland’s economy, the prime minister praised the contributions of his predecessor Tony Blair and others who forged the peace in 1998.

Despite numerous setbacks, Blair never walked away, “and neither will I”, Sunak said at the conclusion of a three-day conference marking the anniversary at Queen’s University Belfast.

The pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is shunning the territory’s government at Stormont over post-Brexit trading arrangements agreed with the European Union, despite itself supporting the UK’s split from the EU.

The party has been under sustained pressure from London, Dublin, Brussels and Washington, peaking in a visit to the island of Ireland last week by US President Joe Biden.

But it has stood firm so far in its refusal to rejoin the Stormont government with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, which last year won Northern Irish elections for the first time.

Sunak was later Wednesday to host a gala dinner gathering many of those who helped negotiate the Belfast/Good Friday peace agreement, including then-US president Bill Clinton.

Clinton said a reform of the EU trading rules agreed by Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, dubbed the “Windsor Framework”, had “dramatically mitigated” the impact of Brexit in Northern Ireland.

“We know what the votes were in the last election,” the former president added in his own speech at the conference, telling the DUP: “It’s time to get the show on the road.” 

Also addressing the conference, von der Leyen said: “The Windsor Framework is a new beginning for old friends.” 

The 1998 deal was followed by sworn enemies from the unionist and nationalist camps joining together in government, she said.

“History now calls on today’s leaders to embark on a similar path, and to shape together the future of Northern Ireland.”