Opinion

Legacy repeal plan shows Labour has been listening - The Irish News view

While the DUP grumble about Sue Gray, Sir Keir Starmer’s government is signalling a more constructive approach

Simon Harris and Sir Keir Starmer enjoy a pint of Guinness at Chequers
Sir Keir Starmer has been in office for only a fortnight but has moved quickly to improve the tone of relations between Britain and Ireland. Signalling the end of the legacy act is another major positive step (Carl Court/PA)
By The Irish News

Much of Labour’s programme for government, as detailed in this week’s King Speech, will have little or no direct application in Northern Ireland.

It does, however, help highlight how the Stormont executive - more than five months in office, compared to the fortnight that Labour has been in power - has still not managed to produce its own programme for government.

Sir Keir Starmer has set out a sweeping agenda that is essentially the party’s election manifesto turned into a series of legislative and policy pledges.

Taken together, it underlines the seriousness with which this Labour administration is approaching the task of government.

A key figure in getting Labour ready for government is Sue Gray, the former senior civil servant who is now the prime minister’s chief-of-staff. Her deep Northern Ireland connections should at least bring an understanding of this place to the heart of the British government, which can only be a welcome development after years of Tory ignorance.

Nonetheless, there is something lamentably predictable about how elements of unionism are already complaining about Ms Gray following a story in the London press - denied by Downing Street - that she was somehow promoting the redevelopment of Casement Park over investment in the north’s health service.

The failings in our health and social care system lie in years of Stormont mismanagement and political cowardice. They certainly do not depend on the mere days that Ms Gray has been working in Number 10. It is plainly ludicrous for Sammy Wilson and others to suggest otherwise.

Indeed, talking to GB News - admittedly a home for fringe and eccentric views - Mr Wilson was perfectly content to ramble on about Ms Gray promoting the “pet project of political pals in Sinn Féin” despite saying he did not know if the story was even true.

Funding for the redevelopment of Casement Park may remain unresolved, but the King’s Speech has signalled the beginning of the end of the Tory legacy act, arguably the most controversial monument left behind by that charlatan government.

It would be wishful thinking to imagine that its edifice could be demolished overnight. Hilary Benn, the secretary of state, correctly points out that developing a new way of dealing with the past will be a complicated process.

Among the inquests halted by the legacy act was that into the death of Seamus Dillon, who was shot dead by the LVF near Dungannon in 1997. His wife, Martina, says she is delighted that Labour is making good on its pledge: “At least this government is treating us as human beings.”

Let’s hope this sets the tone for how Labour will deal with all matters relating to the north.