BREXIT could 'profoundly damage' NI peace process - Hain

By, Press Association.

Brexit could cause "profound damage" to the Northern Ireland peace process, a former Cabinet minister has said.

Lord Hain, the former Northern Ireland Secretary under Tony Blair, warned that a return to checkpoints along the border would sew division and discontent in the region.

The Government must not trigger Article 50 and start formal talks on leaving the EU before enshrining in law its commitment to maintaining the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, he said.

Speaking in the House of Lords as he proposed an amendment to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill, which would enshrine such a commitment, he warned against the "grim peril" of a hard Brexit.

Lord Hain said: "The settlement in Northern Ireland is built on a delicate balance of the three strands of the Good Friday Agreement - relationships within Northern Ireland, between Belfast and Dublin, and Dublin and London.

"Brexit will test each of these relationships, and if the Government pursues a hard Brexit it could do profound damage to all three."

Any physical border will create ill-feeling and could destabilise the region and "unravel" the peace process, Lord Hain warned.

Yet this danger is not addressed in the Government's white paper on leaving the EU, the Labour peer said.

He added: "Frankly I'm not convinced the Government has even begun to grasp the political significance of it."

Lord Hain said the open border is a symbol of normalisation between the two parts of the island, adding: "The Government stirs that at everyone's great and grim peril."

He said: "If the referendum means Brexit at any price, it may well be at a dangerously high cost for the Northern Ireland peace process."

He urged ministers to back his amendment, stressing that it only seeks to lay down in law what Theresa May has already committed to verbally.

Lord Hain said: "Ours is not a wrecking amendment. It does not obstruct Brexit, it does not tie the Government's negotiating hand.

"All it is dong is insisting that, as Article 50 is triggered, it is only on the basis that the Government negotiates to secure what it already says it wants - an open border in line with the Good Friday Agreement.

"I trust, my lords, that we never have to confront the stark choice between delivering on the Brexit referendum and deepening hard-won stability and peace on the island of Ireland."