Sunak must stand up to Tories’ ‘Brexit purity cult’, says Starmer | northern Ireland

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Keir Starmer is set to challenge Rishi Sunak to stand up to the “Brexit purity cult” of Eurosceptics within the Conservative Party to resolve the Northern Ireland Protocol impasse.

The Labor leader will use a speech in Belfast on Friday to encourage the prime minister to take over the once-influential European Research Group (ERG) of Tory MPs to find a solution to problems arising from Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Starmer will say he will provide “political cover” in Westminster if Sunak can strike a deal with the EU that is in the national interest.

It’s time to take action on the protocol. It is time to stand up to the ERG,” Starmer will say on Friday. “Now is the time to put Northern Ireland above the cult of Brexit purity, which can never be satisfied.”

There is a “small chance” of solving the problem before the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April, Starmer will say in his Queen’s speech.

He will say: “We have to use the anniversary to mend minds, to move the country and the political process of politics forward again – bringing help to the people of Northern Ireland.”

Any deal seen as conceding too many concessions to Brussels could spark a revolt in the Conservative Party seats, but Starmer will say he will lend Labor support to Sunak.

“Whatever political cover you need, whatever machinery you need at Westminster, if it is in our national interest and the people of Northern Ireland, we will support you,” he will say.

The Labor leader will call on the prime minister to acknowledge the mistakes made by some Tory ministers who viewed the Irish government as “opponents” on Brexit.

It has damaged the political process here in Northern Ireland – no doubt. And it’s definitely not the spirit of 1998.”

The Northern Ireland Protocol was approved by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson to avoid a hard border with Ireland, but the DUP refuses to engage with power-sharing institutions until it is significantly changed or removed.

Unionists oppose the trade barriers it has created between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

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Starmer’s speech comes after London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, criticized the government’s “denial and shunning” of the “tremendous damage” Brexit is doing to the country.

In a speech at a government dinner at London’s Mansion House on Thursday, Khan called for a shift away from the “unnecessarily hardline” version of Brexit towards greater accommodation with Europe.

The Mayor said: “I simply cannot be silent about the enormous damage Brexit is doing. Ministers seem to have developed selective amnesia when it comes to one of the root causes of our problems.

“Brexit cannot be left out of history or the consequences removed.”

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