“The time for action on the protocol is now” – Keir Starmer’s speech in Belfast

Below is the full text of Labour leader Keir Starmer’s speech at Queen’s University, Belfast this morning.

Thank you Ian for that introduction. It is always an honour to speak at Queen’s – so I’d like to thank the president and vice-president for the invitation today. This is a special place. A first-class university for research, technology and innovation, business and health. An institution that has always been rooted in its communities here in Belfast and in Northern Ireland, but which also enjoys a huge global reach. A reach never more on display than in the appointment of your chancellors, and we can see them on the walls here today. After all, who better to carry the message of peace this city embodies around the world than Hillary Clinton?

I’ve been here to Queen’s many times. In fact, I remember the last time clearly because I was halfway through my speech, the United Kingdom announced a vote on Article 50. What a relief that’s all behind us now. That day, I came here to reflect on the success of the police service of Northern Ireland. And my role as the human rights advisor to the policing board which oversees it.

I’m immensely proud of the work of the board, of that whole period in my life. It’s given me a lasting love of Northern Ireland. Friendships that have endured, including people in this room here today, memories I’ll always cherish. And you know – after we were married, my wife and I took our first holiday here, because I wanted to show her Northern Ireland, the people and the communities that I’d met. I was in love with this island and that love has stayed with me. It’s also taught me so much about politics, about change, about the power of hope.

And this year is a moment of reflection for Northern Ireland and, speaking for myself, standing here in 2023, it’s hard to describe just how different it feels to the Northern Ireland of 20 years ago, when I first came to take up my role here. How raw the emotions were back then, in a country still coming to terms with its hard-won but fragile peace.

I wanted a chance to serve – because it felt like a huge moment. A chance to turn the page on decades, if not centuries, of pain, and I wanted to make a contribution. Help create a lasting institution. One that could reach out to all communities, hold the police to account and, in doing so, help preserve that peace for future generations. I think we did that.

Accountability, transparency, human rights – the framework we put in place was critical for both communities to have a degree of faith. That the police service of Northern Ireland was new, was different, was worth those risky first steps.

We were tested of course – every day. As Tony Blair said at the time – every advance made in the name of the Belfast Good Friday agreement has to be “ground out”. But over time, policing in Northern Ireland did change. The PSNI did become an institution which enjoys cross-community support. Catholics did sign-up to serve.

Not enough – in Northern Ireland, you can always point to the work that still needs to be done, but, if you’d said to us then, in 2003, that in 20 years we’d have the PSNI we have today. That one day, a Sinn Féin leader would stand shoulder to shoulder with unionist leaders, in a campaign to help recruit new officers, yes – that would have felt like an achievement worth celebrating. And there are people here today who deserve huge credit for helping make that happen.

This year, should be a year we celebrate achievements like that. All the achievements – big and small – of the Good Friday agreement. 25 years of relative peace, prosperity and a better Northern Ireland. It’s a proud moment for me, reflecting on the small role I played in that. And it’s obviously a huge moment for my party. The Good Friday agreement is the greatest achievement of the Labour Party in my lifetime, without question.

But of course, the real achievement – the real pride – belongs to the people and communities here in Northern Ireland. It’s your bravery, your determination, your courage, resilience and yes, your willingness to sacrifice, to compromise, to stand, despite everything, in the shoes of other communities. And above all – to keep doing so when there were bumps in the road, provocations, outbreaks of violence. That’s what won this peace.

It’s why I fell in love with this place – I’d never seen anything like that spirit, that hope. I talk a lot about hope at the moment. About how hard it is for people to get through the challenges we face without the real possibility of something better. How, as we lurch from crisis to crisis, we’re losing our faith that the future will be better for our children.

Some communities in the United Kingdom might once have taken that for granted – but not here. Because what I saw in Northern Ireland 20 years ago, were people and communities experiencing that hope for the first time. It’s what powered the Good Friday agreement – drove the communities of this country on towards the history they made.

And we’ve got to get it back. Because I get the sense – with the protocol, with the political situation at Stormont, not to mention the other problems we see here: the NHS, the cost of living, an economy on its knees. That the thought of April being a true celebration feels a little on ice.

I understand that. Anniversaries are hard in Northern Ireland, looking back is hard. Even when we do so with pride, as we should in April – it’s tough. The past is a painful place for so many people, so many communities. People have suffered a lot. And with that comes a fear. Fear that if we stop trying to move forward – if things grind to a halt – then we could yet go backwards.

It’s why, here more than anywhere, you always need that hope of a better future. That’s the spirit of 1998, that’s what the Good Friday agreement asked of people. It wasn’t to forgive, or forget – they were demands that could never be made. It was only to look forward. To commit to a journey. Walk, step by step. Each stride difficult, each stride precious, towards a better future, together.

The anniversary this year should be a true celebration – people deserve that. History was made here, hard-won. But to respect that history, people also deserve action on the issues which currently hold Northern Ireland back. For politics to do its job and give people the chance to look forward with hope.

There is a small window of opportunity before April – we’ve got to use the anniversary to fix minds. Get the country and its political process moving forward again. Deliver for the people of Northern Ireland.

I see two key priorities for this. They’re both urgent, both need to happen now, and so of course they rely on a change of direction from the Prime Minister. But in each priority, I also want to show the values I will bring to Northern Ireland, if I have the honour to serve as Prime Minister.

First – the British government must normalise and strengthen relationships with Dublin. The Taoiseach held out an olive branch in recent weeks – we must take it. But honestly, relations should never have been this strained.

Brexit was a rupture in the UK’s diplomatic stance, a call to change, in every area of our society, which had to be recognised. I’ve been very clear about this – my government will make it work, will take on the mantle of that vote, will turn its slogans into practical solutions.

Yet throughout the last seven years, nothing has been more self-defeating than the determination of some Conservative ministers, to see our friends in Dublin as adversaries on Brexit. That has damaged the political process here in Northern Ireland – no question. And it’s certainly not the spirit of 1998. We should never lose sight of what binds us together on these islands – our shared commitment to peace here above all other considerations.

So I encourage the Prime Minister, as the Taoiseach has said, to recognise past mistakes. It will help him with the second priority, the obvious one – the protocol. Look – there’s no point varnishing the truth, to get beyond the current stalemate we have to make the protocol work. Nobody wants to see unnecessary checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We just need to find a solution. And I want to commend the recent agreement on trade data-sharing, commend the EU, commend the government. If they are finally serious about a deal, there will be no sniping from us – I can promise you that.

I go back to the Good Friday agreement – the pride we feel in the Labour Party towards it, has no bounds. But we know the political effort didn’t come just from us, from Tony Blair and Mo Mowlam, it didn’t come just from Bertie Ahern and Mary McAleese, from the unwavering support of the US – of Bill Clinton and George Mitchell – or the tenacity and brilliance of John Hume and David Trimble.

It was also built on the work of John Major and Albert Reynolds, and afterwards by Lord Patten – whose commission led to the PSNI and the policing board in the first place. My point is this – the spirit of 1998, on both islands, is not one of tribal politics. This is the process which brought Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness together – and they made it work – there can be no clearer example than that.

So I say to the Prime Minister, if there is a deal to do in coming weeks – do it. Whatever political cover you need, whatever mechanisms in Westminster you require, if it delivers for our national interest and the people of Northern Ireland – we will support you. The time for action on the protocol is now. The time to stand up to the ERG is now. The time to put Northern Ireland above a Brexit purity cult, which can never be satisfied – is now.

We can find ways to remove the majority of checks – a bespoke SPS agreement, a monitoring system that eradicates checks on goods that will only ever be sold in Northern Ireland. The opportunity for these reforms is there – and they would deliver for communities and businesses across these islands. Northern Ireland can be prosperous under the protocol. But it requires leadership from you, Prime Minister.

And look – I enjoyed my dialogue with the DUP and unionist parties yesterday, so I want to reach out on this, speak to all unionist communities. There are legitimate problems with the protocol, and these must be recognised in any negotiations. And as for the process that got us here, to this point, I think your anger about that is more than justified.

I said this yesterday, I will say it here and I want every community in Northern Ireland to hear it – the Labour Party will always be a good faith guarantor of the constitution and the principle of consent. That commitment is written in to the agreement we want to celebrate in April – it stands above politics, it should stand above Brexit negotiations as well. I think people know we would have done things differently, and that we will stand by those values when in government.

But I also say this – in the coming weeks, it’s possible there will be siren voices in Westminster that say again, there is another path, a path that doesn’t require compromise on the protocol. In fact, it’s possible those siren voices will include – may even be led by – the very people who created the protocol. That were cavalier with the constitutional settlement of this United Kingdom. That came to this island and acted – to be blunt – in bad faith.

You can listen to those voices, of course, it’s not for me to determine the interests of any community here. But I would counsel that the example to follow is not theirs. But the spirit of negotiation, of conciliation, of courage, that, in the end, is always the force which moves Northern Ireland forward towards the future.

That’s what I want to do in April – look forward. Northern Ireland is personal to me, the Good Friday agreement is personal to me. The drift, the lack of momentum, the elevation of ideological politics above the constitutional settlement – that would never happen with my Labour government. Wouldn’t happen with any Labour government. It’s not how we approach politics on this island. It’s not how my predecessors helped broker peace.

My ambition as Prime Minister would be to give the people of Northern Ireland the hope I saw here in 2003, the sort of hope you can build your future around, that aspirations are made of. And which can – as we’ve seen for 25 years – bring communities together. Ordinary hope and ordinary politics – that’s what the people of Northern Ireland deserve. And we will govern by their example.

When things get tough, we will persevere. Embrace the spirit of 1998. Keep our eyes fixed firmly on the future. A future of peace and prosperity. Partnership between Britain and Ireland. And a politics which delivers for every community in Northern Ireland. Thank you.