Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern call for second Brexit referendum to protect Good Friday Agreement

Former prime ministers warn a hard Brexit is ‘the most serious threat to the agreement since its creation’

Former prime minister Tony Blair and former Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern have called for a second Brexit referendum, in a joint editorial emphasising the importance of the Good Friday Agreement.

Writing in The Irish Times, the co-signatories of the 1998 accord which brought peace and power-sharing to Northern Ireland, warn that Brexit is “the most serious threat to the Belfast Agreement since it was created and to the union in our lifetime".

Mr Blair and Mr Ahern stress that alongside the principle of consent on Northern Ireland’s constitutional status, the agreement acknowledged a “nationalist aspiration to have an open border between North and South”, which Brexit now threatens.

“It is precisely because of such issues as the Border that there should be a confirmatory vote on whatever now emerges from the Brexit process in parliament," they write.

“The Irish Border question is a metaphor for the entire negotiation. It is not possible for the UK to have frictionless trade with the EU if it remains outside the single market, so the question is how much friction is compatible with the Belfast Agreement.”

The two statesmen also issued a warning on what they see as strained relations between their two countries, noting that there is “no variation of Brexit that can strengthen the relationship between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland".

They also warn that the political crisis is weakening the union, and strengthening the argument for Irish reunification. “You cannot walk around the island of Ireland without being asked about the future of a united Ireland – and that has resulted from the position on the Border taken by Brexiteers.”

Pointing out that any Brexit agreement is now “unlikely to be what the public voted for”, the former prime ministers call on Theresa May to give the people of the UK the final say.

Mr Blair has been a fervent advocate for a second referendum on Brexit, which he called on Ms May to implement as a solution to the impasse in December 2018.

Mr Ahern, who served as Irish taoiseach from 1997 to 2008 was today appointed an honorary professor in peace studies by Queen’s University in Belfast.

The Good Friday Agreement was ratified by two referendums held on 22 May 1998, in which 94 per cent of people in the Republic of Ireland, and 71 per cent of people in Northern Ireland voted Yes.