Mo Mowlam has left an enduring legacy that still resonates today

23 years ago this week, the first female Northern Ireland Secretary was appointed to office by the first Labour Prime Minister in a generation. Memorably, for a position known for its challenges, she was more worried that she may not get the job when the phone rang on 3rd May 1997. It was the only role she wanted.

The preceding decades had seen a bitter, intractable conflict descend to awful depths and then grind to a standstill. Her inspired appointment was to help, along of course with the bravery of communities and politicians in Northern Ireland, to usher in a new dawn.

The same familiar criticisms that have followed most female politicians for a century were levelled at Mo. It was claimed that she lacked gravitas and didn’t have the same grasp of the issues as her predecessors. But she understood, almost instinctively, that people were “ready for peace”. She brought, in her words, “the nag factor”. It was typically self-deprecating for a woman whose popularity was rooted in her humility. But her humility was matched by her vision.

In early 1998, only the most wildly optimistic observers felt that a peace was possible. But politics – as the late Seamus Mallon said – is the art of making the impossible possible. Mo brought her own distinctive personality to the bitter conflict – her courage, her inclusivity and her refusal to accept things just because they were – and in the process brought people together. She showed over 11 short months, often through sheer force of will and stamina, that a fairer, shared future was within reach.

Mo recognised that the real division in Northern Ireland in the months leading up to the historic Good Friday Agreement wasn’t between communities, but between the many who wanted peace and the few who didn’t. She expanded the former and shrunk the latter. “It takes courage to push things forward,” she said, and her enormous bravery in visiting Maze Prison was an example of this approach. As was the relationships she built with community groups and people on the ground. She recognised that it was people, not politicians, who would ultimately bring the peace; it was inspired statesmanship.

Through this effort, she – more than any other politician – has defined Labour’s principled and enduring commitment to Good Friday and Northern Ireland. Honest cooperation and relationships built on trust were the soul of that agreement, and Mo embodied them. Labour’s unwavering support for the vision of a shared future, where each community have their rights upheld and their voice heard, was cast in her image.

But the political settlement authored 22 years ago is fragile, and the effects of the last decade of Conservative Party policy have shaken trust more than many in Westminster realise. Brexit struck at the heart of the sense, implicit in Good Friday, of a cooperative future; the prolonged and deep effect of austerity held back social justice; and the vacuum of leadership from the UK contributed to destabilising the political, economic and constitutional landscape in Northern Ireland.

Regrettably, the Conservative Party’s custody of the Good Friday Agreement has been marked by a draining of trust in the UK as an honest broker that can be depended upon in the constitutional landscape. They seemed to forget the lessons that had been learnt – that Northern Ireland was a future to be cooperatively built, not a problem to be overlooked. They forgot that trust, painstakingly built over many years, has to be respected and protected with all communities in Northern Ireland and with the Irish Government.

The Tories need to rebuild that trust, but on the implementation of the Brexit protocol, they are leaving communities, businesses and politicians behind and in the dark in Northern Ireland once again. The UK government would be unwise to repeat the same mistakes; failing to bring Northern Ireland with them on the decisions made about them.

And Covid-19 will shine a bright light on the fragility of Northern Ireland’s economic position, one of the poorest part of the UK. It is a problem that Westminster cannot afford to ignore. John Hulme’s hope in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech of “a future as great as our vision allows” has been undermined by the grinding unfairness of austerity. The billions taken out of public services has left the highest waiting times for any health service in the UK and nurses, teachers and other healthcare workers have been chronically underpaid.

Out of Covid-19, a new focus on solidarity and social justice will be needed for the whole UK, and rejuvenating Northern Ireland’s economy and restoring public services will warrant particular attention.

With political institutions fragile and huge challenges facing Northern Ireland, the value of an honest broker and a principled partner helping to build a fairer, shared future is needed now more than ever. Labour’s determination for Northern Ireland to flourish economically, socially, politically and culturally, and to address and redress the historical inequalities and disadvantages that communities have suffered, is steadfast. It requires Northern Ireland to be treated as a priority in Westminster- something that Blair, more than any other Prime Minister, understood and acted upon in order to build the peace. And some two decades on from Mo Mowlam’s appointment, our commitment to the shared path she helped to mark out is unwavering.