Gordon Brown believes Conservatives endangering Northern Ireland peace
Gordon Brown believes the Conservatives are endangering the Northern Ireland peace process by adopting a pro-unionist stance in breach of the bipartisan approach which dates back nearly 20 years.
As the prime minister flew to Belfast tonight with his Irish counterpart, Brian Cowen, to try to rescue the power-sharing executive, senior British government sources expressed deep unease at the Tories’ approach.
Brown is attempting to broker a deal between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist party to devolve policing and criminal justice powers to Northern Ireland. He has told aides of his astonishment after the Tories convened talks among unionists at an English country estate.
Peter Robinson, the DUP leader, joined talks with senior figures from the rival Ulster Unionist party at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, the country seat of the Cecil family, over the weekend of 16-17 January. The Marquis of Salisbury, the current head of the family, was the most pro-unionist member of John Major’s government.
The talks, convened by the shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Paterson, prompted speculation in Northern Ireland that the Tories are attempting to establish a pan-unionist front to limit the success of Sinn Féin and the SDLP in the general election.
The Tories have already formed a pact with the Ulster Unionist party to put up joint candidates in Northern Ireland’s 18 parliamentary seats.
One senior government source said: “We are simply astonished at what the Tories are doing. The Northern Ireland peace process has been strengthened by the bipartisan approach between all the major parties at Westminster. Holding talks at a country estate – and excluding the nationalists – is absolutely not within that spirit.”
Alasdair McDonnell, the deputy leader of the SDLP, said: “This is a very sinister development. It is endangering the peace process. We have travelled far over 15 years of peacemaking and we are now at the point of putting in the last piece of jigsaw. What we have is Mr Cameron parachuting in with hobnailed boots and going off into a corner with two parties and excluding three others.”
The Tories said the Hatfield House talks had been blown out of proportion. Sources blamed Robinson for briefing on his return to Belfast that they were designed to establish a pan-unionist front.
One source said: “The talks were a genuine attempt to steady the talks on devolution. We know that the two parties are reluctant to move ahead of each other on this. The only pact is our agreement with the UUP to put up 18 Conservative and unionist candidates in the general election.”
The row came as Brown and Cowen arrived for talks at Hillsborough Castle.
Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Féin deputy first minister, said he was frustrated over the lack of political progress after a lunchtime meeting with Robinson. Sinn Féin had earlier described the encounter between McGuinness and Robinson as “critical and defining.”
The republican party is under increasing pressure to pull out of the devolved government and bring the historic power-sharing coalition down. It blames the DUP’s obstinacy over policing and justice as the main cause for the crisis.
