Leo Varadkar calls for Irish unity manifesto pledge by all parties in next election

Vivienne Clarke

Every party running in the next general election should make manifesto pledges that Irish unification is “an objective, not an aspiration”, former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

In an interview with The Irish Times, the ex-Fine Gael leader also called for politicians in the Republic to back the establishment of a New Ireland Forum to plan for a reunified Ireland.

Mr Varadkar will develop his thoughts in a speech in Derry on Thursday to a meeting of the SDLP’s New Ireland Commission.

However, former Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie has questioned why Mr Varadkar did not make a call for Irish unity when he was in office.

The Upper Bann MLA told Newstalk radio that he believed any referendum on Irish unification would be defeated.

“I'm going to be really honest. Wanting a united Ireland is a fair aspiration, but it's not my aspiration. My aspiration is for a United Kingdom and that's what I will be doing with my party, is to secure that for everybody within Northern Ireland.”

Irish politicians “pop up every three months” calling for an accelerated pathway to unity, he said. "It happens every three months like clockwork. That's fine and I don't mind that people do that but there's no tick box for me as an Ulster Unionist.

“I'm an Irishman and I'm a proud Irishman, but I'm an Ulster Unionist and I want a United Kingdom and that's what I'm going to work for. I've got to say this as well. He could have said this while he was Taoiseach – he didn't but he's doing it now, and that's fine.”.

Mr Beattie confirmed that he would not sit in a New Ireland Forum if one was established. “Why would anybody want me to? I've already expressed the fact that I want a United Kingdom. Why would I be part of a forum to help design something I don't want to achieve?

“So no, I don't feel that I would be part of a forum and there's no tick box for me. You can't say to me, well we'll do this, this, this and this to appease you as a unionist so you can come on board and want a united Ireland.

“It simply doesn't work. So, you can change the flag, you can change the Constitution, you can change the anthem if you so wish but that won't persuade me.”

Mr Beattie rejected the idea that there was more momentum toward a United Ireland since Brexit. Any referendum on unity would be “overwhelmingly defeated” in the North, he said.