British prime minister Boris Johnson is engaged in “destruction politics” and has destroyed the trust between the Irish and British governments, said British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer after a meeting in Dublin with Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
During a visit on Thursday, Mr Starmer also said that questions about a Border poll are “totally hypothetical … this is not even on the horizon”.
In an interview with The Irish Times after his meetings at Government Buildings, Mr Starmer dismissed Mr Johnson’s claims to be defending the Belfast Agreement by introducing legislation to set aside the Northern Ireland protocol, which is widely expected to be published next week.
“I don’t think that’s right. I think with a deeply divided government he is involved in destruction politics,” said Mr Starmer.
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“And what I’ve been struck by when I was in Belfast and here in Dublin is that levels of trust in the British prime minister are very, very low. One of the things that has been very important to me and the Labour Party in all this is the notion of the UK as an honest broker under the Good Friday Agreement ... and that honest broker role is being lost under this prime minister.”
He said that problems with the protocol “which I completely understand and which I think everyone understands” could be resolved “around the negotiating table if there is statecraft, graft, goodwill and trust”.
He added: “And it’s that element of trust which is missing — and as I list those attributes, those are the attributes which I fear the prime minister doesn’t have, which is why we’re in the difficulty that we’re in at the moment.”
Mr Starmer also met Irish Labour Party figures and paid a courtesy call to President Micheal D Higgins. He is due to travel to Northern Ireland on Friday.
Mr Starmer — who along with his party voted for the protocol in the House of Commons — accepts that there must be some special arrangements for Northern Ireland. But he declined to say exactly what changes should be made so that it gains acceptance among those parts of unionism that object to it.
“Look, the protocol is there,” he said. “But lots of businesses, they are saying to me, ‘we are making this work, there are problems that can be resolved and what we expect of our politicians is to get round the table to resolve those issues.’ So I think if the trust is there, these are resolvable issues.”
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The Labour Party leader has previously said he would campaign for Northern Ireland to remain in the UK in any future referendum on the issue. But he declined to be drawn on the subject — or on the criteria for a Border poll if Labour were in government in London.
“I don’t think a Border poll is even on the horizon so this is all a hypothetical question,” he said. “This is not even on the horizon … it’s a totally hypothetical question. But a Labour government led by me will stick to the letter and the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.”
Asked if a government led by him could consider rejoining the single market or the customs union, Mr Starmer ruled out any return to the EU’s trading arrangements.
“I do not think that having exited the EU that there’s a case for returning. What we need to do is to make Brexit work and build on the agreement that we’ve got. But there’s no case for re-entry, rejoining, we’ve got to make what we have work.”
