NI political disruption destabilises union - Blair

The former prime minister was speaking to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee

By Stephen Walker

BBC News NI political correspondent

Former prime minister Tony Blair has warned that constant political disruption in Northern Ireland will create difficulty for the union.

Mr Blair was speaking to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Thursday.

He said he wanted NI to remain part of the UK but politically there would have to be something stable.

Mr Blair added that the best way to preserve the union is to make people comfortable with the status quo.

"If people are comfortable with the status quo why change it," he said.

Mr Blair was one of the key architects of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement to end Northern Ireland's Troubles, after his Labour party won the 1997 general election with a massive majority.

On Thursday, he also spoke about the rise of the Alliance Party and said that younger people were likely to be attracted to the party which meant "things are going to get more difficult for the union".

'The best you can do'

Mr Blair also told the committee that he was a unionist, adding: "I want my country to stay strong and that why I oppose the SNP in Scotland."

He said he had been brought up in a unionist household and his grandmother once described the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley as "a great beacon".

Speaking to members of parliament about the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement he said the deal would not have happened without real leadership.

The former prime minister also said the Windsor Framework was the "best I think you can do" to resolve the problems with Northern Ireland following Brexit.

He also said the framework represented the most practical way forward that minimises all of the theoretical objections.

"It doesn't remove them but it means that they're going to be practically, should be, in most circumstances, practically insignificant," he said.

"And that is honestly the best I think you can do with this".

Northern Ireland has been without a power-sharing government since its second largest party, the Democratic Unionist Party, collapsed the Stormont executive over its opposition to post-Brexit trading arrangements in February 2022.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has set a consultation process in motion led by former party leader Peter Robinson to canvass opinion on the Windsor Framework.