Supping his pint of Guinness with Sir Keir Starmer at Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence in Buckinghamshire, Taoiseach Simon Harris could have been forgiven for reflecting on how different, already, the Irish-UK relationship is under Labour.
Central to that is Labour’s attitude, actions and intent on Northern Ireland.
Off camera but not far away was Sue Gray, Starmer’s chief of staff, someone who knows Northern Ireland well having lived and worked there.
Breezing past Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly on the steps of Stormont Castle within hours of her boss becoming prime minister, Gray could also have been forgiven a moment of reflection of her own. She should have become head of the Northern Ireland civil service in 2021. But subsequent events that put Gray at the apex of UK politics are to Northern Ireland’s greater benefit.
Starmer himself knows Ireland north and south well, frequently holidaying in Cork with his family. He spoke during the election about advising the PSNI in its transition.
He also plays football on Tuesday night in a Donegal GAA shirt, something he says keeps him grounded. Harris presented him with a new shirt at Chequers last Wednesday, an Irish aide-mémoire from the forgotten county.
In addition, Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s election victory mastermind, is from Cork, having joined Labour the day after the Belfast Agreement was signed. From a Fine Gael family, his cousin advised Leo Varadkar.
It is perhaps unique in the modern era to have three people at the very top of UK politics who properly understand Northern Ireland from the outset of an administration.
It is perhaps unique in the modern era to have three people at the very top of UK politics who properly understand Northern Ireland from the outset of an administration
Gray has already been criticised on Casement Park funding, being accused of ‘subverting’ the cabinet, but this is part of a wider campaign against her that has existed almost since the day she was appointed. She will have had expertise many in the room lacked and will have put that forward, which she is wont to do and is part of her job.
Starmer’s appointment of a Secretary of State who previously served in the Blair and Brown cabinets for seven years demonstrates how seriously Labour takes Northern Ireland.
Few recent Secretaries of State – Labour or Conservative – have truly ‘got’ Northern Ireland, with the exceptions of Mo Mowlam, Peter Mandelson, the late James Brokenshire (my former boss) and Sir Julian Smith.
With Benn, there is an opportunity to have a serious player at Hillsborough Castle and Erskine House. As chairman of the Brexit Select Committee for five years, he scrutinised all legislation on the biggest constitutional change the United Kingdom – and, more particularly, Northern Ireland – went through, even sponsoring his own Benn Bill on the Withdrawal Agreement. Associated challenges around the Windsor Framework in markets and food standards is familiar subject matter.
The challenges for Benn, however, are vast.
The King’s Speech made clear last week that Labour will repeal and replace the deeply flawed Legacy Act. There is a reason it’s taken more than a quarter of a century since the Belfast Agreement to even begin to sort the legacy of the past. There will always be competing desires for truth, justice or, in some cases, for the past to be left well alone.
When working at the Northern Ireland Office as special adviser it was, bar Brexit, our biggest policy issue, and at least as intractable. The Legacy Act’s repeal will be popular, but its replacement will, I predict, also please few.
In the context of the recent legal actions ruling provisions of the Legacy Act unlawful, some swift parliamentary movement on immunity looks likely.
More fundamental to Labour’s plans nationally is its desire for economic growth, this administration’s great gamble. Labour says it wants Northern Ireland to be a beneficiary of its 2.5% growth target and will attempt to attract more investment.
The government has also pledged talks with the Stormont parties on the fiscal framework, but none should be under any illusion how many other financial pressures bear down on the Treasury.
It will be a very hard sell for Starmer to tell a voter in deprived Blackpool, who gets £12,227 spent on her by the government, that a voter in Belfast, who gets 15 per cent more public money, deserves yet more. There are no universal free prescriptions in Lancashire.
The scale of Labour’s victory earlier this month was huge. So too is the opportunity for Sir Keir Starmer and his Northern Ireland-focused team. But meeting the challenges both set and unseen is at least as large a task.