Reform could rewrite Good Friday Agreement without nationalist consent – Tice

Reform UK would be willing to rewrite the Good Friday Agreement to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) without the support of Northern Ireland’s nationalist parties, Richard Tice has said.

Nationalist politicians have warned that leaving the ECHR, which Reform sees as necessary to enact the “mass deportations” it has planned, would breach the Good Friday Agreement (GFA).

But Reform’s deputy leader said on Thursday that the 1998 agreement, which ended 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, did not prevent the UK leaving the ECHR and could be changed to remove references to the convention.

He told reporters at an event in London: “Parliament has already made changes to the GFA. The idea that it sort of is preserved in aspic and can’t be touched and is untouchable, it’s just not the case.”

Asked whether he would be willing to impose changes over the objections of nationalists, he said: “That’s the joy of democracy. And frankly, it would be boring if we all agreed with each other.

“You have discussions, you have debates, and you get to a conclusion but, ultimately, there has to be a belief in our sovereign Parliament.”

Mr Tice made his comments following an event hosted by the Prosperity Institute discussing a plan to leave the ECHR put forward by Conservative former home secretary Suella Braverman.

Ms Braverman herself, a long-standing supporter of leaving the convention, told reporters a future government should be willing to hold a referendum on Northern Ireland leaving the UK if that was necessary to enact her policy.

She said: “If there needs to be a border poll, then the people should have a vote. I think unionists are confident about the position.

“But ultimately, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom. It is not some disjointed, detached outpost subject to its own separate laws. If the UK leaves the European Convention on Human Rights, so must Northern Ireland.”

Responding to their comments, Cal Roscow of campaign group Best for Britain said: “It’s quite tiresome to continuously hear politicians wax lyrical about the Good Friday Agreement when it increasingly sounds as if they have never read it.

“All changes to Northern Ireland’s powersharing settlement have been carried out with the agreement of both nationalists and unionists so what Tice is really proposing here in practice would be the end of the hard won ‘cross-community’ settlement.”

Mr Roscow added: “Suella Braverman will now have to reconcile herself with the fact that her determination to strip rights from UK citizens has unexpectedly put her on the same side as Gerry Adams.”

Despite appearing alongside Mr Tice at Thursday’s event, Ms Braverman was insistent that she was not planning to defect to Reform.

She said: “I’m not defecting. I’ve been elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament.”

But she did not deny that she had been approached about defecting by figures within Reform, a party which until recently counted her husband as a member.

Asked whether she had been approached, she said: “I have a lot of friends in Reform. My husband was very recently a member of Reform.

“I also have, breaking news, friends in the Liberal Democrats. I also know people in the Labour Party. I’m not defecting to Labour or to the Lib Dems. Let me just tell you that I’m not defecting.”