UK PM Burnham rules out Irish unity vote, drawing Sinn Fein rebuke

BELFAST: British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Thursday a referendum on Irish unity was “off the table,” drawing a sharp response from pro-unity party Sinn Fein during his first visit to Northern Ireland since taking office.
Northern Ireland’s constitutional status remains deeply divisive, nearly three decades after the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement largely ended three decades of conflict over British rule.
The accord provides for a referendum — commonly known as a border poll — if the British government’s Northern Ireland minister believes a majority is likely to favor joining the Republic of Ireland.
“I will take a collaborative approach but some issues will be off the table, and that is one issue that will be off the table,” Burnham told reporters in Belfast.
He said Britain had experienced too much political division following the 2014 Scottish independence referendum and the 2016 vote on membership of the European Union.
“The rifts that come from those situations take a long time to heal,” he said, arguing that the government should instead focus on cost-of-living pressures and public services.
Sinn Fein, which campaigns for a united Ireland and is the largest party in Northern Ireland’s devolved assembly, challenged Burnham’s remarks after meeting him.
Party leader Mary Lou McDonald said the prime minister had no authority to “remove any provision of the Good Friday Agreement.”
“The right for Irish people to decide our future is one that is contained within the Good Friday Agreement,” she said.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland’s largest pro-UK party, welcomed Burnham’s comments.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the prime minister had put speculation over a referendum “beyond doubt.”

UK PM Burnham rules out Irish unity vote, drawing Sinn Fein rebuke