Major ‘wary’ deal could put peace process in Northern Ireland at risk
Sir John Major has said he is “concerned” about the impact a deal between the Democratic Unionist Party and Conservatives could have on the Northern Ireland peace process, and warned that “hard men” were still “lurking in the corners of communities”.
The former prime minister, who began work engaging with the IRA to end the Northern Ireland conflict, said the peace process was still “fragile” and cautioned an agreement could mean the government will no longer be seen as impartial.
He said he was “wary” and “dubious” about a deal “both for peace process reasons but also for others reasons as well”, and said that events in Northern Ireland tended not to unwind as expected.
Sir John said: “We need to be prepared for the unexpected, we need to hope for the best but prepare for the worst. The last thing anybody wishes to see is one or other of the communities so aggrieved that the hard men, who are still there lurking in the corners of the communities, decide that they wish to return to some form of violence.
“We really need to do everything we conceivably can to make sure that that doesn’t happen, and that does require an impartial UK government.”
While he did not expect the process to “collapse” sudden- ly, he cautioned: “I think we have to take care with it and take care that everything we do does not exaggerate the underlying differences that still are there in the Northern Ireland community.”
Sir John said he wanted Theresa May to “succeed” and “stay” as Prime Minister, and he understood her wanting to “shore up her parliamentary position” but said his “main concern” was the peace process. A fundamental part of that peace process is that the UK government needs to be impartial between all the competing interests in Northern Ireland.”
He added: “The danger is that however much any government tries they will not be seen to be impartial if they are locked into a parliamentary deal at Westminster with one of the Northern Ireland parties, and you never know in what unpredictable way events will turn out.”