The hollowing out of the Belfast Agreement

There is a lot to unpack in Sir Keir Starmer’s suggestion that he would campaign for the Union in the event of a future border poll in Northern Ireland. It’s a welcome repudiation of decades of Labour policy, which has been to support Irish nationalism. Would-be members in the Province were directed to join the separatist ‘sister party’ the SDLP instead.

But just as interesting is the reaction of the many commentators who sallied out to suggest that the Labour leader had somehow breached the Belfast Agreement, the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the Downing Street Declaration or any other of the peace’s sacred texts.

According to the Irish nationalist interpretation, somewhere in these documents the United Kingdom made a commitment to be neutral about whether or not Northern Ireland remained part of our country.

We did no such thing. Sir John Major famously declared that the UK had no ‘selfish or strategic interest’ in Ulster, but all that means is that the mainland will not try to hold onto the Province for colonial reasons.