30th November 2021
Yesterday the opposition Labour party had a reshuffle of its shadow cabinet.
This would not usually be anything of note for this blog, as it is the stuff of politics rather than of policy and law.
But there was one change that caught the eye.
The shadow Northern Irish secretary Louise Haigh was switched to the transport brief.
This was, to say the least, a shame.
Haigh had developed expertise and insights into the post-Brexit problems for Northern Ireland and the border dividing the island of Ireland.
She made a particular point of visiting Northern Ireland and Ireland regularly, so as to listen and understand the issues surrounding the Northern Irish Agreement.
She also had not only read the Good Friday Agreement (unlike some ministers), but she also understood it.
There was no better opposition politician to be in place while during reckless, erratic antics of Brexit minister David Frost and his constant threats to trigger Article 16 for no good reason.
And now, all that is lost, and the opposition front bench has to start again.
Haigh, of course, will no doubt do well on transport policy – especially as a northern member of parliament affected by this government’s reversals on rail infrastructure.
But something has been lost, and the necessary impression is that the Labour leader Keir Starmer, like the government front bench, does not take the Northern Irish issue that seriously.
As Dr Laura McAtackney avers:
Louise Haigh has been a great Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland but it is frankly disgraceful that since the Brexit ref – when NI has needed most knowledgeable handling and advocacy at WM – there have been 5 different SoS and 5 different Shadow SoS. https://t.co/xlkgb5l33y
— Prof Laura McAtackney (@LMcAtackney) November 30, 2021
These are all the shadow Northern Irish secretaries since the Brexit referendum:
And these are all the Northern Irish secretaries:
The turnover of Northern Irish secretaries and shadow Northern Irish secretaries has not only been at a time of Brexit and post-Brexit uncertainty but also when for about half the period since the referendum there has been no devolved assembly in Northern Ireland.
Could the main two political parties show any less interest in Northern Ireland?
If and when there is a border poll, and if and when there is a majority in the poll for a united Ireland, British political leaders will only have themselves to blame.
And indeed by any such a poll in just a few years, at the current rate we probably will have had another three or four Northern Irish secretaries and shadow Northern Irish secretaries.
The consequences of Brexit on Northern Ireland and the issue of the Irish border should be taken with the utmost seriousness by the leaders of the main British political parties – and they, of course, will protest that they do.
But rapid turnover of both Northern Irish secretaries and shadow Northern Irish secretaries shows otherwise.
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On the other hand, the Republic is not actually that interested in accepting a load of bolshy unionists rooted in ancient hatreds into their modern country – unlike West Germany, which was happy to pour billions into reuniting with the East, the Republic neither has the billions not the political interest. So there may not be a hugely attractive offer in a future border poll.
(Not that I disagree with your basic argument that the people of NI deserve to be cared about more consistently)
Unification makes obvious sense but the population of NI is still divided about it.
Some common institutions exist and strengthening them might smooth the path to eventual unity.
It is shameful for both Tory and Labour to treat NI with such disdain, particularly when it is, as I have observed before, the Achilles heel of the entire doomed Brexit project. But there are no Tory or Labour votes in NI. The low point was surely the Tory SoS who was unaware that Protestants tended to vote Unionist and Roman Catholics Nationalist. It displayed an ignorance and a wilful one at that, on a par with Raaab’s Damascene revelation that Dover / Calais was, in fact, an important import / export route for 10,000 trucks A DAY.
It is no wonder that former colonies not only want independence but freedom from any British interference / legal overlordship like Barbados today becoming a republic. It is all of a piece in the centralisation of power in London with nary a thought for the other countries which make up the United Kingdom. In fact, it is worse than that. As a resident of the South West, we too feel under-represented and ignored. The fact is that Tory (and Labour) administrations focus on their core constituencies, but more particularly their marginals (hence all the investment being gerrymandered to Tory marginal cities and towns). They even neglect their “safe” constituencies, so little do they value voters. The entire focus is on which “marginals” might they win or lose in our hopelessly outdated FPTP voting system. So what hope do the Welsh, Scots and particularly NI have?
Worth noting as well that given the Labour party refuse to stand in NI – for what should be viewed as quite patronising and ill-informed reasons – there will never be a Secretary of State or Shadow SoS who actually also represents NI, and is from NI (although in Conor McGinn they could well fulfil the latter). The level of knowledge inherently ingrained in the Scottish and Welsh Secretaries and Shadow Secretaries from actually being from and based there is totally lost in NI. I suspect that lack of knowledge and roots is one of the reasons the Secretary and Shadow Secretary role is seen as little else other than a low rung on the cabinet ladder. However, at the heart of it, NI’s own reform and improvement will come from within and from correcting our own local politics and voting – not from a paternal hand holding of a secretary of state, or shadow secretary. But I think the point David’s piece makes is really important!
….and the best SoS and shadow SoS were only in post for just over 8 months each.
Not having an elected presence in Northern Ireland for both Labour and Conservative demonstrates how little NI is considered. A border poll leading to a United Ireland and all the turmoil that could bring can’t be that far away.
Such a waste and all forewarned by Major and Blair.
Indeed and on this topic bring back Major, Blair and Mo Mowlem!
As a resident of NI I could not agree with you more. At this stage if the government are not going to take us seriously, they might as well send a Secretary of State in court uniform and ostrich plumes to perform some residual decorative functions instead.
All seems sensible to me. Being made to look after NI is like being made MD of a failing company the boss wants to get rid of but can’t. You will get no funding and no thanks and are just waiting for the shoe to fall off the bed. Unfortunately the shoe is likely to fall in the jerry and make a bit of a mess.
Yes that is a shame. While it is possible to understand Sir Keir Starmer’s desire to throw everything at the red wall seats Norhern Ireland deserves better than this. Hopefully your message will get through – it would be good to see Starmer (and Ed Davey) regularly in Northern Ireland but also in Scotland and Wales. It is, sadly, too much to hope that the Conservative and Unionist Party would live up in any way to the second part of their name. All they care about is electoral success and for them that means only England. The good of, the strength of the Union is directly contrary to their electoral ambitions.
I’m in NI. There’s been a remarkable churn of Secretaries of State and their shadows.
Karen Bradley arrived not knowing that Protestants voted for Unionist parties, and Catholics voted for Nationalist/Republican ones.
Julian Smith was judged a success for resurrecting the Executive and Assembly after three years. He was axed after Johnson won his large majority; Smith was judged not to be a ‘true believer in Brexit’.
As for Starmer’s reshuffle, I can only imagine it’s to give people a breadth of experience. Moving an experienced politician out when there is all this stuff about the Protocol going around seems otherwise to be a retrograde move.
“A Labour government in Britain would remain neutral on the question of Irish unity in any future Border poll, shadow Northern Ireland secretary Louise Haigh has said. She described Labour as a unionist party but said the Belfast Agreement meant that the British government should not act as a persuader on one side of the argument.
“The principal of consent is still very much intact. It is only for the people of Northern Ireland to determine their own constitutional future and polls still suggest there is still a very firm majority in favour of remaining in the United Kingdom,” she told GB News.
“It’s not my job to be a persuader for the union, that was an important principle that led up to the Good Friday Agreement. One of the important principles was that Britain should not have any strategic or selfish economic interest in the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. It’s up to the people of Northern Ireland to determine their own constitutional future.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer said in July that he would be “on the side of unionists” arguing for Northern Ireland to remain in the UK.”
The Irish Times of 23rd November 2021
The Labour Party does not organise and campaign in Northern Ireland for elections there. Although the party does have individual members registered there.
Traditionally, Labour’s sister party in Northern Ireland is the Social Democratic and Labour Party.
The SDLP has in the past sat on whichever side of the House of Commons that the Labour Party is sitting and currently has two out of the Northern Ireland seats at Westminster.
The SDLP party platform advocates Irish reunification.
Should one or more SDLP members be returned to the Westminster Parliament at the next General Election along with other parties favouring reunification then Labour might find itself in a bit of a spot, if it needed their support to keep the Tories out of Number Ten.
Starmer and the advisers he personally appointed are just not very good at the nitty gritty of politics and in hock to the Scottish Labour Party with its determined opposition to another independence referendum that might prove to be the price of SNP support in a hung Westminster Parliament.
Welsh Labour has set up a commission to consider the position of the principality within the United Kingdom and its deliberations will include independence for Wales.
Yesterday’s reshuffle was Old Labour, pre New Labour at its very worst.
Wasting a day of campaigning in the week of an important Westminster Parliament by election and disrupting campaigning for the following three days.
The Shadow Cabinet or as many of them who were available should have been out pounding the streets of Old Bexley and Sidcup’ yesterday, not being engaged in all the excitement of a reshuffle.
If Lisa Nandy had had her way back in 2016, a third of the Shadow Cabinet would now be elected by the Parliamentary Labour Party.
At one time, it used to be the whole of Labour’s Shadow Cabinet. All of whom became redundant when Labour took office as the Prime Minister had free reign to put whomsoever they desired in their Cabinet.
A two Johns sketch from back in the day (that I have yet to track down) had John Fortune interviewing John Bird, who was posing as a Labour Party apparatchik, in the aftermath of a General Election.
Bird says he is relieved that the General Election is over so they may now focus on the real elections.
“Real elections?” asks Fortune.
“Yes, to the Shadow Cabinet, the National Executive Committee …”
The 1922 Committee visited Boris Johnson in Number Ten last week.
Only a resounding victory in this week’s by election will improve Johnson’s credit with the men in grey suits.
Labour does not have to win on Thursday, just reduce the Tory candidate’s vote share as against 2019 to lower Johnson’s credit further.
Corbyn and his coterie may have gone, but too often it is still amateur hour in the Labour leader’s office.
How else do you explain moving on an impressive Shadow Minister whose friendly connections and contacts might be crucial after the next General Election?
Excellent summary. I’m coming to the view that Starmer is playing too long game for UK politics.
Patrick Mayhew’s role in Northern Ireland is rarely mentioned – but I once heard him talk about his 5 years and 1 month as Secretary of State. He described his role as simply walking alongside people until they learnt to trust (like walking a horse into a horse box was his analogy). No one else has come close to his longevity in that role, but it must have been an important factor in the peace process.
Brandon Lewis’s constituency of Great Yarmouth, 2nd most Easterly constituency, whilst responsible for the most western part of the Kingdom, is perhaps an illustration of the oddity of a constitution that effectively requires MPs in almost all cabinet posts, but then forms a government with MPs almost entirely from one constituent country.
I’ve often wondered if politics would be different and the Union Strengthened if the First Ministers of devolved Nations had a right to attend cabinet – it was certainly bizarre when Johnson as Mayor of London was made minister without portfolio but First Minister of Scotland (who has significantly more power) is isolated from London Policymaking.