Conference, I want to begin by thanking my predecessor for everything he did - and did
so well - for the people of Northern Ireland.
When Keir asked me to take on this job, I was very conscious of
the responsibility I inherit.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Good Friday
Agreement.
That day, that moment, which finally made possible that which -
for so many years - had seemed impossible.
A pathway to a peaceful future for the people of Northern
Ireland.
It showed what we can do together when we put our minds to it.
Conference, it was the towering achievement of
the last Labour Government.
But that legacy has been recklessly damaged by the Conservatives
and their behaviour over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
They signed an international treaty with absolutely no intention
of implementing it. That hurt our relationship with the Irish
Government - the co-guarantor, with us, of the Good Friday
Agreement – and with the European Union.
Instead of bluster and posturing, what was needed was patient
diplomacy, and that eventually resulted in the Windsor Framework.
It is a significant step forward which will, I believe, solve
many of the problems created by the Protocol.
That’s why Labour supports it, but it needs to be implemented
sensibly and with sensitivity to respond to unionist concerns.
And that’s why we want to negotiate an SPS agreement with the EU
to help trade flow – across the Channel and the Irish Sea – more
easily.
Because of these concerns, the people of Northern Ireland are
once again without a government. No Assembly and no Executive.
Indeed, they have had no government for most of the last 6 years.
It cannot go on like this.
And therefore, the single most urgent priority and the biggest
responsibility on all of is to redouble our efforts to get
democracy in Northern Ireland up and running again – the Prime
Minister included.
Where is he?
If was Prime Minister he’d be
over there, working hard to find a way forward so that
politicians can get back to work and be held to account by the
people who elected them.
And so that the challenges facing Northern Ireland - the longest
waiting lists in the United Kingdom, nurses who haven't had a pay
rise this year, the terrible pollution in Lough Neagh - can start
to be addressed.
Although huge progress has been made in bringing peace, there are
a very small number of people who wish to destroy it. They won’t
succeed but they shot Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell in
Omagh back in February.
Mercifully, he survived. Conference let us send him and his
family our very best wishes and say to all his colleagues in the
Police Service of Northern Ireland “Thank you for what you do to
help protect the communities you serve.”
And for all the progress, every shooting brings back painful
memories for those who live with the long legacy of violence, The
terrible collective trauma of the Troubles has not gone away.
The people I met last week who lost loved ones – mothers,
fathers, sons and daughters, sisters and brothers - want the
truth and they want justice.
But the Government’s misguided Legacy Act - opposed by almost
everybody in Northern Ireland - has taken that away from them. As
one woman said to me “It's as if the death of my mother doesn't
count.”
That cannot be right. And that’s why the next Labour government
will repeal the Legacy Act.
Conference, while we cannot forget the past, we must also look to
the future.
Northern Ireland is a place of enormous potential - talent,
skills, optimism – and it has, of course, access to both the EU
and the British markets, What an opportunity.
A week ago today, I visited Belfast to see the economic growth
that is taking place around the harbour and to hear about the new
opportunities opening up across Northern Ireland.
The slipway from which ships will once again emerge, wind
turbines, advanced aerospace manufacturing, hydrogen and electric
buses, a vibrant service sector, great universities and of course
a growing television and movie industry, including the iconic
Titanic Studios, created out of the old Harland and Wolff shed
where ship components were once painted.
An old industry giving birth to a new one which shows Northern
Ireland’s capacity to adapt and to prosper.
On that journey – political and economic - Labour will always be
a friend to all communities, a good listener, an honest broker, a
patient negotiator – after all, that’s how the Belfast Good
Friday Agreement was created.
And I look forward to the day when Stormont is working again.
I look forward to building strong relations with our friends and
neighbours in Ireland and a better economic relationship with the
EU.
And I look forward to a Northern Ireland forging an even brighter
future with investment, jobs and better public services for all
its citizens.
