Peter Kyle – 2022 Speech to Labour Party Conference

The speech made by Peter Kyle, the Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on 26 September 2022.

Conference, despite all the challenges, Northern Ireland is a thriving part of our United Kingdom.

Its creative industries go from strength to strength, entertaining and thrilling people across the world.

And it is a powerhouse in cybersecurity and financial services, in Europe and beyond.

But the politics of Northern Ireland is hurting.

The assembly and executive lie dormant, the divide between communities widens.

Progress has stalled.

This should worry us all – and would spur any decent government into action.

But not this one.

For months after the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed, there was no visit from the Tory prime minister.

No multi-party talks in Downing Street.

Not even a statement to Parliament.

Conference, the greatest threat to progress in Northern Ireland is not misguided policy.

It’s not even the lies told by this rotten government.

The biggest threat is Tory neglect.

The only hope of progress is a Labour government.

The Tories see problems as a chance for a row, to deepen division.

We see problems as a chance to solve the challenges that hold us back, to create new opportunities and bring people together.

That requires a leader capable of statecraft. Who knows hard graft.

Who shows people respect, even when they sometimes disagree.

That’s why I’m proud to have Keir Starmer as our leader.

He has the skills Northern Ireland needs to succeed.

Unlike Liz Truss, who creates more problems than she solves.

To imagine what Labour can deliver for Northern Ireland, just look at what we did deliver.

Next Easter we mark the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

That totemic moment in time when leaders from across political divides and communities decided a new future was possible.

It was only there to grasp because a Labour prime minister with his Northern Ireland secretary believed in their hearts that radical change wasn’t just possible, it was deliverable in that moment.

They put in the time.

They brought people together.

They pulled the impossible into reach and provided the opportunities that leaders in Northern Ireland, and the Irish Government, had the courage to seize.

Conference, we salute those who made peace possible, with a Labour government.

We thank Tony Blair and the remarkable, one-off talent of our Mo Mowlam.

We recognise the courage of David Trimble who we said goodbye to this summer, and John Hume.

They led their communities into an era defined by peace and growing prosperity.

Labour bequeathed the Tories a Northern Ireland that was increasingly at ease.

But they squandered it with their lies and neglect.

It was the Tories who proposed, drafted, negotiated and signed the Northern Ireland protocol into international treaty.

Yes, there are issues with it, but they can be solved.

We know that negotiation is the only path forward.

But a year has already been wasted.

A year in which politics in Northern Ireland has stumbled and the Tory government in Westminster looked the other way.

A Labour government would deliver rapid deals with the EU on the flow of goods, the sharing of data and making it easier for agricultural products to move around the UK and the island of Ireland.

We’ll fight hard for our interests using statecraft, diligence and graft – not the Tory way, which always seems to end, somehow, in breaking the law.

The difference in approach and ambition between the Tories and Labour couldn’t be starker.

Labour delivered peace, prosperity and confidence to Northern Ireland.

The Tories can’t even negotiate a prawn sandwich across the Irish Sea.

Conference, the people of Northern Ireland deserve better.

With Keir Starmer and a Labour government they will have it.