The United Kingdom government has rejected United States President Donald Trump’s call for Irish unification, insisting that conditions for a referendum on Northern Ireland’s constitutional future have not been met.
The UK government, led by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, said that there was currently insufficient public support in Northern Ireland to justify a vote on whether the territory should remain part of the United Kingdom or join a united Ireland.
A Downing Street spokesperson on Saturday said Burnham remained of the view that the conditions stipulated under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement for triggering a referendum had not been satisfied.
The position followed Trump’s remarks in Dublin, where he openly backed the idea of a united Ireland and suggested that the long-standing constitutional question should be settled sooner rather than later.
Speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister, Micheal Martin, during a joint press conference, Trump said he would “love” to see Ireland unified.
“I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened,” Trump said, adding that, in his view, Irish unification was eventually going to happen and “may as well happen now.”
Trump described unification as “fantastic”, while acknowledging that the UK would have a say in any process leading to a change in Northern Ireland’s constitutional status.
His comments have injected fresh international attention into one of the most sensitive political questions surrounding the United Kingdom and the island of Ireland.
Under the Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998, a referendum on Northern Ireland’s constitutional status can be called if it appears likely that a majority of voters would support leaving the UK and becoming part of a united Ireland.
The agreement provides the framework for determining Northern Ireland’s constitutional future through democratic consent.
However, the UK government maintains that the threshold for holding such a referendum has not been reached.