The Northern Ireland power-sharing institutions must get back up
and running so that they can start delivering on the issues that
matter for the people of Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister
will tell party leaders this week.
Delivering a “tough message” in private meetings on his first
visit to Belfast since the Assembly elections, the Prime Minister
is expected say that - while the UK government will “play its
part to ensure political stability” - any action to fix the
Protocol must result in all parties coming together to form and
Executive and Assembly.
Drawing on his time as Mayor of London, he will say that there is
“no substitute for strong local leadership”. Legislators must
“get back to work” so that they can deal with the “bread and
butter issues” like supporting families with the cost of living,
cutting covid backlogs and fighting crime.
In his meetings with party leaders, the Prime Minister will also
guarantee the delivery of three pre-existing commitments to
Northern Ireland in the “coming weeks” including:
- Taking forward the Language and Culture Package agreed as
part of the New Decade, New Approach.
- Intervening to deliver abortion regulations and place a duty
on the Department of Health, so that women and girls have access
to services that are their legal right.
- Introducing new measures to deal with the legacy of the past,
with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland setting out more
detail in the coming days and weeks.
The PM will update party leaders on the UK Government’s
discussions with EU leaders over recent days, in which the EU
have confirmed that they will never change their current
negotiating mandate.
He will tell party leaders “that we will always keep the
door open to genuine dialogue” however “there will be a
necessity to act” and protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement
if the EU does not change its position.
The PM will make clear that the government has never suggested
scrapping the Protocol. There will always have to be a treaty
governing the UK’s relationship with the EU in respect of
Northern Ireland in order to prevent a hard border on the island
of Ireland and protect the integrity of the EU single market.
Instead, the Protocol needs to be reformed so that it delivers on
its initial objectives to protect the Belfast (Good Friday)
Agreement in all its dimensions.
He will say that there is “no disguising the fact” that
the delicate balance of the Agreement has been upset by the
Protocol, because one strand of the Agreement (North-South) has
taken precedent over another (East-West).
This undermines the text of the Agreement, which makes clear that
all strands are of “interlocking and of equal importance”. It has
eroded the historic economic bonds which link Great Britain and
Northern Ireland and resulted in the Unionist community feeling
like its aspirations and identity are threatened.
The UK and EU’s “shared objective” should be for a
reformed Protocol to enjoy “the broadest possible cross-community
support” when it faces a consent vote in 2024, he will say.
