Tony Blair Warns Biden to Avoid Interfering in UK Politics During Northern Ireland Visit

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 17: (L-R) U.S. President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Kevin M
Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair warned President Joe Biden to not overstep his bounds and interfere in the internal politics of the United Kingdom during his visit to Northern Ireland.

President Joe Biden should act with “care and with sensitivity” when he arrives in the UK province of Northern Ireland on Tuesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Peace Agreement, ex-British PM Tony Blair said.

“Americans can play a real role but it’s something that you need to do carefully because there is a difference between influencing and pressurising… I think if we do it in the right way, the involvement of the American President is positive,” he said in comments reported by GB News.

“I don’t know what the up-to-date situation is with President Biden and our Prime Minister now, but for me at that time and actually also afterwards with President Bush who came to Northern Ireland and was actually extremely helpful at a crucial moment in the peace process,”

“The Americans can play a real role but it’s something that you need to do carefully because there’s a difference between influencing and pressurising and the one tends to be positive and the other can be negative.”

British Prime Minister Tony Blair And His Irish Counterpart Bertie Ahern Present A Joint British-Irish Blueprint For Implementation Of The Good Friday Agreement At Stormont Castle In Belfast June 2, 1999. The Good Friday Agreement, Signed Last Year By Catholic And Protestant Leaders, Is Meant To Bring Peace To Northern Ireland, Though Its Full Implementation Has Recently Been Stalled By Disagreements Between Sinn Fein And The Ulster Unionist Party Over Disarmament By The Ira. (Photo By Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair And His Irish Counterpart Bertie Ahern Present A Joint British-Irish Blueprint For Implementation Of The Good Friday Agreement At Stormont Castle In Belfast June 2, 1999. (Photo By Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Blair was one of the central figures in crafting the peace deal which largely brought an end to decades of political violence and terrorism in the conflict known as ‘The Troubles’ in which extremist Irish republicans in the IRA and other organisations waged a low-level war against the heavily Protestant and pro-UK unionists in Northern Ireland, also known as Ulster, over a desire to see the island of Ireland united under one flag.

While the widespread violence, which included IRA-backed bombings in England, has mostly subsided since the 1998 peace deal, ahead of Biden’s visit to the UK region, the terror threat was raised to “severe“, indicating that an attack was highly likely.

On Monday, police in Londonderry came under fire by radical youths, who threw petrol bombs at their vehicles during parades marking the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising — the armed insurrection in Dublin that spurred the independence movement which ultimately saw the south of Ireland break away from the United Kingdom in 1922.

Biden, who has been described as “anti-British” and who often touts his Irish heritage — while glossing over his English roots — has a long history of interfering in UK domestic politics. The 80-year-old Democrat consistently opposed Brexit, much like his old boss, former president Barack Obama, who infamously interjected himself into the 2016 Brexit referendum debate, warning Britons that they would be put at the “back of the queue” in terms of trade deals if they voted to leave the EU.

For his part, Biden said in 2018: “Had I been a Member of Parliament, had I been a British citizen, I would have voted against leaving [the EU].”

This anti-British sentiment has carried over into his presidency, with Biden’s administration frequently supporting the European Union in disputes over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which saw the bloc imposing trade barriers between the province and the rest of the UK, which observers warned could destabilise the fragile peace.

During his visit this week, Biden is expected to pressure Northern Ireland’s pro-Brexit Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) into rejoining the locally devolved parliament, which it has refused to attend since last year over concerns about the Protocol being used to put the UK region under the control of Brussels.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.