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Britain’s relations with Ireland could get caught in crossfire of Sunak’s election battle

PM’s refusal to accept back asylum seekers using Border as route from UK to Republic raises tensions at bilateral conference

British secretary of state for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris and Tánaiste Micheál Martin: Mr Martin insists a post-Brexit agreement already exists between the UK and Irish governments to facilitate migrant returns.

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Mark Paul
Mon Apr 29 2024 - 19:54

Echoes of Britain’s wartime past are rarely far away in Whitehall, the area of Westminster that is home to the administrative machinery of the UK government.

Winston Churchill, for example, famously greeted crowds of cheering Londoners on VE (Victory in Europe) Day in 1945 from a big balcony overlooking the street below. “Did anyone want to give in?” he shouted, as the crowd roared back “No!”

There may have been a subtle little message of stubbornness, then, in the UK government’s decision to choose the Churchill Room in 100 Parliament Street, the very spot from which the cigar-chomping former prime minister made his 1945 balcony address, as the location for a tense press conference with the Irish Government on Monday as a row brewed between them over the issue of migration.

The British could have chosen any room in the grand old building, but they settled on that one. Perhaps they wanted to send a very Churchillian message that they had no intention of giving in to the Republic on the issue of who should take responsibility for a certain cohort of asylum seekers.

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[ British prime minister Rishi Sunak ‘not interested’ in deal with Ireland to return asylum seekers to UK ]

The two governments were in an increasingly terse diplomatic spat over would-be refugees who first make an asylum claim in Britain, but who later show up in Dublin to make a fresh claim in the Republic having slipped from Britain into the North and then south over the open Border.

The Irish Government has claimed 80 per cent of recent asylum seekers made it to the State through this backdoor from Britain, as it plans legislation to get around a recent High Court ruling that has blocked the return of refugees to the UK.

The Republic will not be the UK’s migration “loophole”, Taoiseach Simon Harris has said, as migrants flee Britain due to an imminent new asylum regime that means people who arrived there illegally to make a claim will soon be deported to Rwanda. The British, however, insist they won’t take any migrants back from Ireland.

It was clear that the political temperature was creeping upwards in the Churchill Room on Monday when everyone began asking for water. The press conference was held there following the latest bilateral British Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC), which takes place regularly under the auspices of the Belfast Agreement.

The major row between Ireland and the UK over migration, explained

Listen | 19:52
A major diplomatic spat has erupted between the Irish and British governments over migration.It began when Minister for Justice Helen McEntee stated that more than 80 per cent of recent international applicants came to Ireland from the UK across the border with Northern Ireland.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made political hay with this 80 per cent figure, saying it proves his Rwanda scheme is deterring migrants from remaining in the UK.The two governments are seemingly a major impasse over how to resolve the issue.It’s a story that involves political posturing in advance of elections on both sides of the Irish sea, but also also an issue of genuine importance to voters and to those seeking international protection.Political Editor Pat Leahy and London Correspondent Mark Paul look at the ramping up of tensions, where it leaves British-Irish relations and its impact on the political issue of immigration here.Presented by Aideen Finnegan. Produced by Declan Conlon.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin represented the Republic, while Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris represented Britain. Minutes before their arrival, as journalists discussed the rising tension, Heaton-Harris’s officials roamed the room handing out cans of cold water. The politicians walked in at exactly 1pm. Martin immediately made a hand gesture at one of his officials – the lifting of an imaginary glass to his mouth – that suggested he, too, was suffering from a case of dry mouth.

[ The Border ‘back door’: why are so many migrants crossing into the State from Northern Ireland? ]

As he stood awkwardly alongside Martin, Heaton-Harris was adamant that the UK government did not want to “upset” its Irish counterpart. But he was equally adamant that getting the UK’s tough new Rwanda migrant regime off the ground was his government’s priority, and if that meant disappointing Ireland on the issue of migrant returns, so be it.

Martin, ever the diplomat, made a few halfhearted attempts to play up the apparently “warm” BIIGC meeting that he had just co-chaired with his British counterpart. But was it warm? Or was it really heated?

[ UK denies its stance on asylum seekers threatens agreement with Republic ]

The Tánaiste insisted repeatedly there is already a post-Brexit agreement in place between the UK and Irish governments that facilitates migrant returns between the two. But at exactly the same time that he said this, ITV was preparing to release comments from British prime minister Rishi Sunak, who said he was absolutely “not interested” in taking asylum seekers back from the Republic.

Sunak faces a general election battle with Labour later this year in which his tough stance of immigration will be one of the few cards he has left to play. Relations with Ireland could get caught in the crossfire over the issue of migrant returns.

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