Rishi Sunak has said he is “confident” that a “practical resolution” can be found over the Northern Ireland protocol after an upbeat meeting with his Irish counterpart, Micheál Martin.
Sunak became the first prime minister since 2007 to attend the opening of the British Irish Council summit. He was joined on Thursday by representatives from the UK, Irish and devolved governments at the meeting in Blackpool.
The prime minister also held a bilateral meeting with Martin, the taoiseach. Speaking after their discussions, Sunak reiterated the need to find a “negotiated solution” to resolve a dispute with the EU over the Northern Ireland protocol that has dogged relations and raised concern over a trade war.
“I think we all recognise that the protocol is having a real impact on the ground, on families, on businesses in Northern Ireland, threatening Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom,” he said. “And I want to resolve that.”
He added: “We need to protect Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and that will require everyone to enter into these talks with a spirit of goodwill and pragmatism. I’m confident if we can do that, working together, we can find a way through.”
Martin called Thursday’s meeting “constructive” and said the talks, so soon after Sunak’s appointment, demonstrated “the importance of the relationship between Ireland and Britain”.
But he said now was the time to flesh out just how far the UK was willing to go to resolve the dispute. “We want to see meat on the bone,” Martin told RTÉ television. “The mood music is improving. We now need to translate that into a resolution.”
London and Brussels have resumed talks to try to settle their differences. with the change of UK prime minister contributing to a more optimistic tone.
Long-stalled talks have restarted with a more positive tone but have yet to get down to detail. Northern Ireland’s political institutions are meanwhile in limbo.
The Democratic Unionist party, the biggest pro-UK force, has boycotted the power-sharing executive and assembly at Stormont since May to press its demands for the customs border in the Irish Sea to be removed. It was erected under the protocol, for goods entering the region from Britain.
Chris Heaton-Harris, UK secretary of state for Northern Ireland, delayed calling new elections on Wednesday, as required by law, to give space for the negotiations to advance.
He said he was extending the deadline for parties to form an executive to December 8, with the option of an additional six-week extension to January 19 if necessary. If the DUP continues to hold out, Heaton-Harris would have to call an election in March or April.
Officials hope a deal can be done in time for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that ended Northern Ireland’s three-decade conflict. US president Joe Biden is expected to visit to mark the occasion.
Sunak said on Thursday that he was “deeply committed to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement”.
Leo Varadkar, who will take over from Martin as taoiseach on December 17, said Sunak’s presence at the summit was “a very significant gesture and, hopefully, it’s a sign of a better relationship to come”.
But Mary Lou McDonald, whose pro-Irish unity party Sinn Féin won the May elections in Northern Ireland, said it was time to deliver.
“We need more than a change in atmosphere, we need more than a change in mood music,” she told RTÉ, adding that meant “good-faith negotiations, consistent engagement by the British government, an end to unilateral action, an end to the protocol bill, for example”.
Earlier on Thursday, Sunak also held bilateral meetings with Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of Scotland, and Mark Drakeford, her Welsh counterpart.