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Fine Gael’s Simon Harris has launched a broadside at the British government for suggesting Irish ministers “needed permission” to talk about a united Ireland.
After party leader Leo Varadkar declared at the Fine Gael ardfheis that it was their mission to achieve a united Ireland, which he could see in his lifetime, UK northern secretary Brandon Lewis rebuked his remarks as “unhelpful and ill-advised” during current tensions in the North.
Mr Lewis said the British government “would be concerned about any deviation from the principle of consent as enshrined in the Belfast Good Friday Agreement” and urged everyone to “dial down the rhetoric, particularly at this time of year”.
The British government minister also linked the timing of Mr Varadkar’s comments to Sinn Féin gains and a Fine Gael drop among voters, reflected in the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI opinion poll.
Responding to the intervention, Minister for Further and Higher Education Mr Harris said: “It has been a hell of a long time since any Irish ministers needed permission from the British government to make a comment at a political ardfheis.”
“I don’t comment on Boris Johnson’s constant rhetoric about preserving the union, in his sincerely held view in relation to that,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
Mr Harris insisted it is “a legitimate aspiration of Irish people to unify our country” and that his party leader Mr Varadkar “believed passionately in a united Ireland”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said Mr Varadkar was “absolutely right” in his remarks.
“We will see [a united Ireland] well within Leo’s lifetime — of that there is no doubt,” she said.
“Can I also endorse his commentary that this issue, this project, is not in the possession of any one political party. I could not agree more.”
Ms McDonald said it was important “that all of us, right across Irish society, including unionist citizens or sceptical citizens that have yet to be won over to the huge opportunities that Irish reunification represents, that all of us have a position and plan.”
“There will be contrasting views and visions of a new Ireland. The Tánaiste made some disparaging remarks around what he called Sinn Féin’s crude vision of reunification. Our vision is far from crude.”
Mr Varadkar yesterday defended his speech to his party’s ardfheis the previous evening, in which he said he believed “in the unification of our island and I believe it can happen in my lifetime”.
While the views of unionists must be “acknowledged, understood and respected”, Mr Varadkar insisted “no one group can have a veto on Ireland’s future”.
“It is our ardfheis, we have an ardfheis every year or every 18 months where we talk about the future. And there’s never a bad time to talk about the future of Ireland and Ireland’s place in Europe and the world.
DUP MP Gavin Robinson described the remarks as “a pathetically transparent attempt to ‘out-green’ Sinn Féin” and that they were “not just unhelpful but destabilising at a time when there are clear political tensions in Northern Ireland”.