The Sunday Telegraph

The Union will only be safe in one candidate’s hands

My own experience of Liz Truss fills me with optimism for the challenges ahead

- ARLENE FOSTER Dame Arlene Foster was first minister of Northern Ireland and is now chairman of the Together UK Foundation and a presenter on GB News

Given candidates have been fighting an election to lead the Conservati­ve and Unionist Party, it has taken a long time for the Union to come to the fore of the debate. Finally, thankfully, it now has. Predictabl­y, it is Liz Truss who has proved to be the Union’s most passionate advocate.

On her travels across the UK this week, she pledged to become her own minister for the Union if she becomes prime minister and she spoke about what the Union means to her. “I consider myself a child of the Union,” she said.

This chimes with my experience of Truss. In recent years, while others appeared to give up on the Union during post-Brexit negotiatio­ns in the name of political convenienc­e, Truss always backed it. Despite the fact we are talking about the Conservati­ve and Unionist Party, her stance took real bravery.

In a recent interview in this newspaper, former Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis noted Truss’s support for overriding the Northern Ireland Protocol, which would remove the trade barriers that exist between the British mainland and Northern Ireland. He suggested Rishi Sunak was more resistant.

It is for these reasons I sincerely hope she becomes the next prime minister of the United Kingdom. Given ongoing threats to the Union, we need a leader with the determinat­ion and creativity to persuade voters who may be wondering what benefits the Union really brings to them.

It is because of my firm belief in the benefits of the Union, against this backdrop of ongoing threats to its existence, that I and others are setting up a new organisati­on, the Together UK Foundation. We will bring mainstream pro-Union voices from across the entire country to highlight the benefits that the Union brings to us all – mostly without us realising it.

The conversati­on on the future of the Union has become increasing­ly emotional and angry. Political tribalism and aggressive nationalis­m have poisoned debate, and ordinary voters in towns across Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales no longer hear anything other than hostile attacks. It puts everyone off; we must rise above it.

While we firmly believe in the Union and disagree with divisive nationalis­m, we aim to make the positive, rational case for maintainin­g it – not simply to attack the motives and values of our political opponents.

There is no shortage of material to talk about. Together, we are better able to weather the economic storm that is battering the UK and other leading economies; together, we benefited from the freedoms from the delivery of early UK Covid vaccinatio­ns; together, we share the benefits a truly national health service, free at the point of use – something that countries on our very doorstep do not enjoy.

We will be explicitly non-party political in our approach. While I would welcome the arrival of a conviction Unionist into No10, we know Unionists exist in other parties too. Only recently, Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, made clear her support for the Union and her commitment to fight for its maintenanc­e. We look forward to working with mainstream politician­s from across the UK.

Rightly, people are warning of the terrible headwinds that will face the new prime minister as they walk into Downing Street: the cost of living crisis, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Chinese aggression towards Taiwan and all the rest. Each of these crises is enough to blow a new PM off course and enough to scare everyone else.

But these crises will be easier to face if we face them together, our Union intact.

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