Brexit’s own West Lothian Question

Issues over Northern Ireland’s border could lead to the downfall of Theresa May’s government

The Northern Ireland Question in the Brexit talks is rapidly becoming the West Lothian Question of our time.

In 1977, during a debate on devolution, Tam Dalyell, the late West Lothian MP, pointed out the democratic shortfall of a situation in which Scottish MPS could vote on matters that only affected England, but could not be removed by the people those policies affected. Given any of the suggested solutions to this problem led down roads that seemed to end with the breakup of the United Kingdom, the response by successive Labour and Conservative governments since the Holyrood Parliament opened in 1999 has largely been to ignore it. Helped by a rather laissez faire attitude to the issue by most voters in England, this policy of selective blindness worked reasonably well.

The question of how there can be no hard borders between Northern Ireland and the Republic or Northern Ireland and mainland Britain, but a hard border between Britain and the EU is similarly intractable. However few would describe attitudes to such matters in Northern Ireland as “laissez faire”; identity probably matters more there than in any other part of the UK. A diplomatic fudge over the border – involving the turning of multiple blind eyes and a large dose of goodwill – will also be considerably trickier given the Northern Ireland Question, in contrast to the West Lothian one, requires the agreement of separate nation states.

And, even if it could be achieved, it would not then be unreasonable for other parts of the UK to ask for the same deal – as Nicola Sturgeon quickly pointed out. Scotland’s First Minister is one of only a few leading politicians advocating the only real answer to the Northern Ireland Question, which is for the whole of the UK to remain in the single market when it leaves the EU.

But if Theresa May chooses this path, Brexiteers in her own party will almost certainly rebel and could easily cause her government to fall. Her disastrous decision to call an election in June means Northern Ireland’s DUP has a similar power over her, so it was no surprise when a reported fudge to allow “regulatory alignment” between the North and the EU fell apart. A hard border between North and South risks the peace process. So the Northern Ireland Question threatens the UK government, relations with the EU, our most important trading partner, and even a return to the Troubles.