UK Labour calls for citizens’ assembly to deliver integration in Northern Ireland

The UK Labour party has called for the establishment of a citizens’ assembly to help restart Northern Ireland’s “stalled” peace process.

The people’s forum should focus on delivering reconciliation through integrated education and shared housing, the party said.

In a speech in Belfast, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland Louise Haigh will warn that “progress has stalled for too long, and in its place division has grown”.

Ms Haigh will claim the British government’s “reckless custody of the Good Friday Agreement has sewn division”.

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She will also urge the UK government not to provoke “further poisonous instability” over Brexit’s Northern Ireland protocol.

Ms Haigh will make her comments at a speech at The Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University.

She will urge all those with responsibility to “recommit to the principles of peace” and say “crises will continue to come and exacerbate divisions here until Northern Ireland is truly reconciled”.

Ms Haigh said setting up a citizens’ assembly would be a “decisive step” to building a shared future as she called for a “decade of integration” in the region.

Commenting ahead of the speech, Ms Haigh said: “Labour are steadfast in our support for the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

“There is no alternative to the bedrock of peace, to share power and build a shared future for Northern Ireland. All with responsibility must commit to the principles of peace.

“But in recent years progress has stalled and division has grown, while the [British] government’s reckless custody of the Good Friday Agreement has sewn division, and the shared future that so many imagined in the dark days of conflict has not arrived.

“Crises will continue to come and exacerbate divisions here until Northern Ireland is truly reconciled. That is why we must bring the people back into the process and help rekindle the spirit of reconciliation.

“A properly designed citizens’ assembly focusing on integrated education and housing could be a decisive step to building a shared future and build consensus.

“The decade ahead must be a decade of integration if Northern Ireland is to decisively move forward and deliver the reconciliation the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement promised.” – PA