Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, accused the British government of risking the breakup of the United Kingdom and making “shocking” mistakes over Northern Ireland.
Varadkar said Boris Johnson’s administration had been undemocratic and disrespectful and tacitly accused it of being dishonest and dishonest.
The Tánaiste made the scathing attack in an interview with the BBC on Thursday night, days after the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill – which could undo the Brexit deal – cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons.
“I think it’s a strategic mistake for people who want to keep the union, because if you keep forcing things on Northern Ireland that the majority of people don’t want, that means more people will turn away from the union. This is a peculiar policy coming from a government that claims to want to protect the union,” he said.
Varadkar, who is due to succeed Michael Martin as taoiseach later this year, said he found it “shocking and hard to accept” that Downing Street had tried to unilaterally change the protocol. “What the British government is doing now is very undemocratic and very disrespectful to the people of Northern Ireland because it is taking that power away from the assembly.”
An honest government would honor a treaty it agreed to and abide by international law, he said. “It is not normal for a democratic government in a respected country to sign a treaty and then try to pass domestic legislation to overturn it,” he said.
Varadkar refuted statements by Liz Truss, the UK foreign secretary, who said the EU’s proposed solutions would worsen bureaucratic obstacles. “Well, apparently there are some people who can say that a square is a circle. Those are simply not the facts.”
Asked about Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis’s statement that relations with Dublin were “great”, Varadkar replied: “In my political life I have never seen such a bad relationship”. London did not want to work with Dublin, was fighting with Brussels and was not on equal footing in Belfast, he said.
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Separately, in a letter to the Financial Times, Adrian O’Neill, Ireland’s ambassador to the UK, contradicted Truss, who defended the protocol legislation. It would destabilize Northern Ireland by creating a legal and political vacuum, he said.
Meanwhile, Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein’s deputy leader and Northern Ireland’s presumptive first minister, laid a wreath at a cenotaph in Belfast on Friday to honor British army soldiers – many from Ireland – who died at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. d. an important anniversary for trade unionists.
Sinn Fein leaders have attended First World War commemorations before, but not in Belfast. O’Neill attended a low-key event before the city’s official celebration. “As political leaders, we have a responsibility to go beyond our comfort zones and extend a hand of friendship and do what we can in terms of leadership and healing the wounds of the past,” she said.
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