Andy Burnham is facing further pressure over his comments on Irish reunification after the SNP highlighted an apparent difference between the Prime Minister’s position and previous remarks by Louise Haigh.
The row follows Burnham’s first visit to Northern Ireland as Prime Minister, when he described a border poll as “off the table”, with Downing Street subsequently attempting to clarify his position following criticism.
The SNP is now calling on Haigh, the First Secretary of State, to say whether she continues to believe that Northern Ireland’s constitutional future should be determined by the people who live there.
Speaking in 2021 while Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Haigh said it was not her job “to be a persuader for the union” and added that the “principle of consent is still very much intact and it is only for the people of Northern Ireland to determine their own constitutional future.”
The controversy has grown since Burnham’s visit, with the SNP pointing to criticism from a US congressman who suggested the Prime Minister should “read the Good Friday Agreement”.
Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown also departed from Burnham’s position over the weekend when he said: “well, of course, in the long term, Ireland will be united.”
The dispute is also being linked by the SNP to Burnham’s position on Scottish independence after he described another referendum as “off limits” during his first visit to Scotland as Prime Minister.
SNP MP Kirsty Blackman said:
“Andy Burnham talked the talk about doing politics differently, but his actions have displayed all the hallmarks of anti-democratic arrogance shown by all the previous occupants of Number 10 Downing Street.
“He claimed he was going to go on a listening tour round the UK but so far, his only trips to Scotland and Northern Ireland have been to tell people that independence is ‘off limits’ and an Irish border poll is ‘off the table’.
“We now have senior US politicians reminding Burnham of the terms of the Good Friday Agreement which includes the principle that the right to self-determination should not be left to one person and even one of the chief architects of the Better Together campaign admitting that Ireland will be united.
“Downing Street can try to row back on the Prime Minister’s comments, but Burnham has shown he either has a poor understanding of the Good Friday agreement or a willingness to ignore it completely.
“I’m not sure which is worse.
“The Prime Minister’s stance is directly at odds with his own deputy with Louise Haigh previously saying that it is ‘only for the people of Northern Ireland to determine their own constitutional future’.
“Does she stand by these comments or is she just the latest Labour Party politician who is happy to abandon her principles now she is in apposition of power?
“Here in Scotland, voters elected a record number of pro-independence MSPs in May, we now have First Ministers in every corner of these islands who reject Westminster and yet another poll this week showed that people are fed up with the failed Westminster system which does not work for Scotland.
“Andy Burnham must recognise that he cannot block democracy forever and wake up to the reality that people across these islands have rejected the broken UK status quo.”
