Keir Starmer has said he believes there can be a “deep” reset of relations with Ireland after arriving in Dublin for his first official visit, with Northern Ireland, Brexit and joint international interests on the agenda. It is the first official visit of a British prime minister since Boris Johnson visited in 2019 to try to salvage a Brexit deal after years of strained relations. Five years on, the mood was optimistic as Starmer was greeted by the taoiseach, Simon Harris.
“It’s a pleasure to be here, to have this opportunity that we will take to renew the friendship between our two countries,” he said. “That reset, I think, can be meaningful, it can be deep. Of course, it covers the relationship between our two countries. Obviously it has to cover the Good Friday agreement and I take very seriously our joint role in relation to that.” It is Starmer’s second time meeting Harris in the nine weeks since the general election, a sign of the “real intention” to reset relationships to the “great benefit” of the UK and Ireland, Starmer said. He said pressing international issues including Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East were also on the agenda for the meeting. “In relation to the Middle East, we need a ceasefire so that the remaining hostages can come out, so that desperately-needed aid can get in to Gaza, and that we can step down the path towards a two-state settlement, which in my view is the only lasting settlement that will bring about lasting peace,” the prime minister said. Harris has said Ireland and Britain have a “collective wish to see a cessation of violence in Gaza”.
Before going in for their talks, they met nine-year-old Freddie Munnelly from Castleknock in Dublin, who had a liver transplant in the UK. The young boy gave the two leaders scarves to wear at the Ireland v England football match at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening. The two leaders will participate in a business roundtable in Dublin with representatives of Primark, diary giant Ornua and Dawn Meats among others to explore how a “reset” in relations can benefit trade. Earlier on Saturday, the Northern Ireland secretary, Hilary Benn, told the British Irish Association in Oxford that he was committed to implementing the Brexit protocols for Northern Ireland in full in order to show EU capitals they were also serious about a reset in the EU deal including the securing of a veterinary agreement. “We will implement the Windsor framework [the Northern Ireland trading arrangements] with pragmatic good faith, not least because we need to do so in order to be able to negotiate a veterinary agreement with the European Union, but also in order to protect the open border on the island of Ireland.” However, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Micheál Martin, said there would be no “à la carte” choices for the UK in that reset just because there was a more pro-European government in power in the UK.