Photo courtesy of Anadolu
The British government said the legal threshold for a vote on Northern Ireland’s future had not been reached, distancing itself from US President Donald Trump’s public support for Irish reunification.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government maintained that there was insufficient indication that most voters in Northern Ireland currently favored leaving the United Kingdom and joining the Republic of Ireland.
The issue returned to the spotlight after Trump, appearing with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin, openly endorsed the prospect of bringing the island under a single state.
Trump said he would “love to see it unified” and argued that reunification was likely to happen eventually. He also acknowledged that Britain would have a role in determining Northern Ireland’s constitutional future.
His intervention touched on one of the most politically sensitive questions left by the decades-long conflict in Northern Ireland and the peace settlement that followed.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement established the principle that Northern Ireland would remain part of the UK unless its people chose otherwise through democratic consent.
British law requires the Northern Ireland secretary to order a referendum if it appears likely that a majority would vote in favor of joining a united Ireland.
Any eventual reunification would depend on voters rather than political endorsements from Washington, with the peace framework providing for consent in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.