Irish unity vote only route for Northern Ireland to rejoin EU – O’Toole

By Jonathan McCambridge, PA

The only route for Northern Ireland to rejoin the European Union is through an Irish unity referendum, SDLP Stormont leader Matthew O’Toole has said.

Mr O’Toole was speaking ahead of an opposition motion in the Stormont Assembly, nine years on from the 2016 Brexit referendum.

The SDLP MLA will say there has been a “structural shift” in British politics with the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.

He will also tell Stormont any prospect of the UK rejoining the EU is “miniscule”, and a referendum under the terms set out in the Good Friday Agreement is the “only route back to EU membership” for Northern Ireland.

Speaking ahead of the debate, Mr O’Toole said: “The SDLP welcomes the improved co-operation between the UK and the EU following the recent summit in London, along with progress in a number of areas that begin to ease some post-Brexit frictions.

“We always knew Brexit would be disastrous for the whole UK economy, for Northern Ireland and relationships across these islands. Sadly, so it has proven.

“Northern Ireland was dragged out of Europe against its will, and our politics has suffered the consequences.”

He said British politics was continuing an “irresistible drift towards ‘Faragism’.”

Mr O’Toole added: “We have virtually no power to stop that happening.

“But we do have a viable pathway to a different future – a European future – and that is through a new Ireland.

“It is time all parties who claim to be pro-European and reject the ‘Faragification’ of UK politics to acknowledge our only route back into Europe is via an inclusive, hopeful new Ireland.”