Rishi Sunak has delivered his strong warning yet to DUP leaders about their refusal to restore powersharing arrangements in Northern Ireland – insisting that the Stormont boycott would damage the cause of unionism.
In a speech at Queen’s University in Belfast, the prime minister urged the DUP to accept the “breakthrough moment” of his post-Brexit compromise deal with the EU and return to government with Sinn Fein.
“I want to speak directly to the representatives of unionism,” the PM said. “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. I’m a proud unionist.”
Mr Sunak said the fact that the Stormont institutions have been “down” for nine of the 25 years since the historic Good Friday Agreement “should be a source of profound concern”.
The PM added: “Over the long-term that will not bolster the cause of unionism. I believe that deeply. So we need to get the institutions up and running, and keep them up and running.”
Mr Sunak said today’s leaders should take “inspiration and instruction” from the Good Friday Agreement forged 25 years ago to fulfil the promise of “devolved stable government” for the province.
Former US president Bill Clinton used his own speech at the Queen’s University conference to back Mr Sunak’s compromise deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol and urge the DUP to “get the show back on the road”.
He told the audience, with included EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, that the Windsor deal “seems to me anyway, as an outsider who cares very much, is about the best deal you could get to split the baby”.
Mr Clinton said it would give the province the benefits of access to the European markets and the UK market – describing it “best of both worlds”. But he warned that “no matter how good any deal is … what really matters is how long it has a hold of people’s imagination and trust”.
Former US president Bill Clinton speaking during the Belfast conference
Referring to the impasse at the Stormont institutions, Mr Clinton said “it is time to get this show on the road” – saying the Good Friday Agreement “was never supposed to be used to make sure there could be no self-government”.
Ms Von der Leyen told the conference that the Windsor deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements was a “new beginning for old friends” – urging leaders to have “the same wisdom and vision that the leaders of Northern Ireland have already shown over the past 25 years”.
Ms Von der Leyen spoke warmly about former DUP leader Ian Paisley and his journey from opposing the Good Friday Agreement to sharing power with Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness less than 10 years later.
Mr Heaton-Harris had used his speech on Tuesday to urge the DUP to follow the example of the late Mr Paisley and have the “courage” to return to Stormont. “Real leadership is about knowing when to say yes and having the courage to do so,” he said.
Akshata Murthy, Rishi Sunak, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar
But it provoked a defiant reaction from DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, who hit back by saying the unionists would not be “brow beaten” into returning to Stormont while it still had concerns about Sunak’s Brexit deal.
“The great and the good can lecture us all they want for a cheap round of applause but it won’t change the political reality,” Sir Jeffrey said, despite saying he had a “good exchange” with Mr Clinton in Belfast earlier this week.
And DUP MP Gavin Robinson said Mr Heaton-Harris’ comments were “more akin to a speech by a clueless Irish-American congressman”, while DUP MLA would not “bow to presidents and prime ministers”.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson says he won’t take lectures from ‘the great and the good’
Irish premier Leo Varadkar was applauded as he told the conference on Wednesday that the people of Northern Ireland deserve a functioning assembly.
“It is incumbent on Northern Ireland’s political leaders today to take the initiative,” he said. “To seize control of their history, to seize control of their destiny, and to lead their people into the future.”
Charles Michel, president of the European Council, told the conference that the UK and the EU “need each other more than ever” – saying the Good Friday Agreement was a “powerful symbol of what our shared values can achieve”.
Mr Clinton expressed optimism that there could be breakthrough in the political deadlock after his meeting with the DUP leader on Tuesday. “I left that meeting more optimistic than I entered it,” he told the BBC.
There is speculation that Sir Jeffrey could agree to devolution after Northern Ireland’s local elections on 18 May, but the party is thought to be keen to keep campaigning on their hardline anti-protocol stance over the next month.
