The Government and the new Labour administration in the UK have an opportunity to reset what has been a difficult relationship in recent years and the next generation will “never forgive us” if they fail to do so, Taoiseach Simon Harris has said.
Mr Harris moved quickly once the outcome of the British general election became known on Friday to contact prime minister Keir Starmer. It is part of an effort to repair relations between Dublin and London which have been strained by protracted wrangling over Brexit and Northern Ireland’s status outside the EU.
“At the end of the day, we’re neighbours, we’re friends; in many cases we’re family as well,” Mr Harris said in an interview with Sky News.
“There’s an opportunity now, a real opportunity that we must seize and the next generation will never forgive us if we don’t press reset and say: ‘Yes it’s been a difficult few years, but you know what? We have so much more in common than divides us’.”
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He said Ireland and the UK should work together to “fulfil the promise of the Good Friday Agreement” which he said was “very much in the DNA of the British Labour Party”.
Mr Harris acknowledged there had been “clear policy differences and difficulties and challenges” between the UK and Ireland in the years since Brexit, but the Taoiseach said he was eager to work with Mr Starmet to repair relations.
Shortly after his appointment as prime minister, Mr Starmer had a telephone conversation with the Taoiseach and invited him to visit Downing Street on July 17th. Mr Harris on Sunday said the British-Irish relationship is “really strong” and the two islands have “many issues of mutual concern”.
In a post on X replying to Mr Harris, Mr Starmer said: “An Anglo-Irish partnership can offer great opportunities to both our nations. Looking forward to working closely with you.”
The Taoiseach said one of the priorities of his meeting with Mr Starmer later this month would be discussing ways of improving the structures for engagement between Britain and Ireland following Brexit.
“It used to be that whoever the Irish taoiseach and British prime minister was would meet regularly through their membership of the European Union,” he said. “Those structures obviously aren’t there now. I respect that fact. But we do need to look for new ways of making sure that regular engagement happens.”
Mr Harris said people did not need a history lesson over why the relationship has been difficult in recent years.
“Obviously, Brexit did make life challenging and challenging in relation to the relationship between the two islands and also, I suppose, changed that in many ways because no longer will be two countries within the European Union,” he said.`
“The fact that we now have a new British prime minister and indeed a new Irish Taoiseach does present a real opportunity for both of us, both myself and the prime minister, to dig deep in terms of resetting Anglo-Irish relations.”
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