Key Welsh figures strike back after Good Friday Agreement criticised
On the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a shadow cabinet minister has apologised after suggesting the deal that helped bring peace to Northern Ireland is outdated. Political editor David Williamson reports
LEADING Welsh figures who worked to cement the Northern Ireland peace process have voiced concerns about the threat posed by Brexit.
Pontypridd Labour MP Owen Smith – who was sacked by Jeremy Corbyn last month as Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary after recommending a Brexit referendum and continued membership of the customs union and the single market – was alarmed when Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner was heard to describe the Good Friday Agreement as a “shibboleth” – a Hebrew term used to describe a long-held custom that is outdated
Mr Gardiner told an audience in Brussels that it was to “confuse cause and effect” to say that having a “normal border relationship when one party is no longer in the EU” would “bring back paramilitary activity”.
He ignited controversy by adding: “I think we must also recognise that there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday Agreement. And that is because it is hugely in the Republic of Ireland’s economic interest to make sure that there is no tariff and no external border there.”
Mr Smith, who before entering parliament had been a special adviser to then-Torfaen MP Paul Murphy when he was Northern Ireland Secretary, said: “These remarks by Barry Gardiner are both reckless and plain wrong. I worked in Northern Ireland with Barry and it is remarkable that he can display so little understanding of the vital and continuing importance of the Good Friday Agreement, or of the essential need to avoid any hardening of the border in Ireland.”
He added: “If the choice is between Brexit and the Good Friday Agreement, we must support the Agreement every time.”
And former Northern Ireland Secretary Lord Peter Hain told the Press Association the shadow international trade secretary was “unbelievably ignorant and irresponsible”.
“The Good Friday Agreement has delivered 20 years of peace now being relentlessly undermined by the Tory Government dogmatists putting a hard Brexit before that peace,” the former Neath MP said. Commenting on Mr Gardiner’s remarks, former prime minister Tony Blair told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t know how anyone can say that. It’s the only basis upon which you’re going to have peace.”
And Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: “Labour fully supports the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects, including no hard border. Crucial this is fully respected in the Brexit negotiations and beyond.” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the Good Friday Agreement was a “defining moment in Irish history” which allowed peace to prevail.
He added: “There must be no return to a hard border between north and south, and no return to the horrors of the Troubles. All of us on both sides of the Irish Sea have a responsibility to maintain hope for the future.
“The history of Ireland is a great teacher of oppression and brutality, imagination and poetry. For Irish communities everywhere – including in my own constituency – the Good Friday Agreement will always embody their hopes for peace and justice. We must cherish and learn from it for the future.”
Mr Gardiner had described an initial report of his remarks as “nonsense on stilts” but has now issued a full statement in which he says he is “deeply sorry” that what he said led to a “misunderstanding”.
He said: “The Good Friday Agreement is a vital and essential part of the relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, and has been central to the two decades of peace it has brought about...
“We are committed to negotiating a new customs union between the UK and Ireland as part of a final Brexit settlement, which would play a key role in ensuring there is no hard border.
“I am deeply sorry that my informal remarks in a meeting last month have led to misunderstanding on that point – in particular, that my use of the word ‘shibboleth’ in its sense of ‘pass word’ or ‘test of membership’ gave the impression that I thought the Good Friday Agreement was in any way outdated or unimportant. I absolutely do not.”
The furore has come as Lord Hain has joined Lord Murphy and other former Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland in voicing their concerns that Brexit will lead to a “hard border” dividing Northern Ireland from the Republic.
They fear this “will lead to instability that could threaten the very existence of the agreement,” adding: “Imposing a hard border between north and south as a result of Brexit would disrupt this settlement, upset the political balances central to it and overturn the popular consent that endorsed it. Those who value the agreement and the peace it brought to Northern Ireland have a duty to speak up and make clear their opposition to the Government’s Brexit policy.
“They should insist that the option of continuing in the customs union and single market remains open.”
They urge the UK Government to “put partisan interest aside and act in the interests of all by prioritising its commitment to peace in Northern Ireland above its desire to have Brexit at any cost”.
Former Ulster Unionist leader and first minister Lord Trimble said he believed Brexit was being used by some to undermine the Agreement. He said: ‘’Brexit is one thing – the Agreement is completely different. There is no interaction between them at all. ‘’But what is happening at the moment is some people are trying to use Brexit to undermine the Agreement and I hope they are unsuccessful.’’