Rishi Sunak turns up the heat on DUP in Belfast speech

Rishi Sunak turns up the heat on DUP in speech marking 25th years of Good Friday agreement warning stalled powersharing in Northern Ireland risks harming the union

• PM has used speech in Belfast to praise ‘courage’ of the Good Friday Agreement

Rishi Sunak turned up the heat on the DUP tonight warned that stalled powersharing at Stormont risks harming the union.

In a speech in Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the PM praised the ‘courage, imagination and perseverance’ of those who negotiated the deal.

He promised to emulate their efforts by ‘giving everything’ to maintain the settlement in the province.

Delivering a strong signal to the DUP, Mr Sunak told the audience – including Bill and Hillary Clinton and EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen – that the institutions had been down for nine of the past 25 years.

‘Over the long term that will not bolster the cause of unionism,’ he said.

Mr Clinton and Irish PM Leo Varadkar had similar messages urging the resumption of powersharing.  

In a speech in Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the PM praised the ‘courage, imagination and perseverance’ of those who negotiated the deal

Mr Sunak told the audience – including Bill and Hillary Clinton and EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen – that the institutions had been down for nine of the past 25 years

Mr Sunak said the Windsor Framework on post-Brexit rules that he struck with Brussels recently was ‘a breakthrough moment’.

‘It solves practical problems and crucially strengthens Northern Ireland’s place in our union and our UK internal market,’ he said.

‘It gives the assembly significant new powers ready for when it sits again.

‘And I am confident we can build broad support for it across all communities.

‘So I share people’s frustrations that the institutions are not back up and running.’

Mr Sunak stressed that all communities have to be involved in making peace work.

‘We will talk. We will listen. We will try to persuade, and we will not give up,’ he said.

‘And I want to speak directly for a moment to the representatives of unionism, who include many diverse voices, and whose concerns with the protocol we are focused on addressing.

‘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 union.

‘Now 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.

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

The Clintons, Mr Sunak, the PM’s wife Askshata Murty, and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar were pictured walking together outside Queen’s University Belfast

The four politicians attended the conference to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

Mr Sunak cautioned against trying to force changes to the GFA without cross-community support. 

‘Let me also say to those who would seek to reform the institutions right now, I understand your frustrations. But history reminds us that nothing in Northern Ireland has ever been achieved by trying to get around one community or another,’ he said.

‘So any conversation about reform can only begin once the institutions are up and running again. And if it attracts widespread consent.

‘The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement left us an extraordinary and precious legacy.

‘When we look back and 25 years from now, surely we should aspire for our legacy to be nothing less than this: that the institutions have been up and running every single year.’

The DUP walked out last year in protest at the operation of the Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol.

Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has warned that his party would not be ‘brow beaten’ into returning to Stormont.

But other senior figures have been hinting that the DUP could return to power-sharing in the summer.

EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen was also speaking at the conference today  

Earlier, Mr Clinton said ‘it is time to get this show on the road’.

Speaking about what needs to happen in the future, Mr Clinton said: ‘Now that I think the biggest roadblock that Brexit posed for Northern Ireland’s political and economic future has been dramatically mitigated, it’s to figure out what the heck practically is at issue here – not rhetorically, not ideologically – practically at issue.

‘What else needs to change to protect the day-to-day legitimate pursuit of making a living and to deal with it.

‘But 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.

‘We know what the votes were at the last election, we can add them up, the allocation of seats in the parliamentary body, and it is time to get this show on the road.’

Ms von der Leyen said she wanted the Windsor Framework to be a ‘new beginning for old friends’.

She highlighted Northern Ireland’s ‘unique’ opportunity to attract investment under the trading arrangements agreed between the EU and UK

‘The Windsor Framework is a new beginning for old friends, it turns the page on years of division and dispute,’ she said.

‘It is an opportunity to set our sights on the future of our partnership and to focus on what brings us together.

‘More investors are now eyeing Northern Ireland, this is a unique opportunity for Northern Ireland. There is so much we can do together with wisdom and vision.

‘The same wisdom and vision that the leaders of Northern Ireland have already shown over the past 25 years.’

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