Cameron: visits to Belfast
The new Prime Minister moves from election rhetoric to decisions on the deficit between his two visits to the province.
Two visits in as many weeks from David Cameron will likely not continue throughout his premiership but a interest in to the Northern Ireland cause cannot be in doubt.
In spite of a bout of volcanic ash on 4 May, the then-Leader of the Opposition made the trip to La Mon House hotel to speak to gathered supporters. Cameron’s sights were still very much on forming a Conservative-only government. That, though, would not come to pass.
agendaNi pressed him on his manifesto commitment to take questions at the Scottish Parliament and whether this would also mean regular visits to Stormont.
“That will be very much a matter for them,” he said, referring to MLAs. “What I’ve said to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly is, if that is what Assembly members and Parliament members want, I want to try and bring the United Kingdom closer together. And I think there are opportunities for Westminster politicians to spend more time listening to Assembly members and Assembly members to spend more time listening to Westminster politicians.”
Although it could be seen as a unionist gesture, attending Stormont would allow Sinn Féin – and parties without MPs – to question Cameron directly on UK Government policy.
Cameron went on to mention a freedom of information request into how much time Owen Paterson and Shaun Woodward had spent in the province: “I think we all know the answer to that one.”
Gordon Brown spoke to the Assembly on 16 September 2008, and Peter Hain and Shaun Woodward also met Assembly committees during their time in office. However, NIO ministers generally kept a low profile in the press and around Stormont after devolution returned. Behind the scenes, the Joint Ministerial Committee does bring UK and devolved ministers together but meets privately in London.
Cameron’s commitment to return was sparked by an impromptu question from a supporter in the front row. In full flow, he replied: “I can tell you, sir, if I become your Prime Minister, I’ll be back [thumps lectern] here within a week.”
Forming a government, though, took up the bulk of his first seven days. He returned on 20 May, without Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, to meet both the First and deputy First Ministers and party leaders.
“We’re all in it together; we all have to deal with the deficit together,” Cameron told the waiting press at Stormont Castle.
The PM said he had come to the province for two reasons; first to demonstrate his commitment to the whole of the UK, and to show his continued support for the devolution.
“As well as stressing our commitment to the devolved institutions and making them work, I also wanted to stress my commitment to getting the economy here in Northern Ireland going,” he said.
One of the ambitions of his coalition government, Cameron added, was to grow a strong private sector here. The enterprise zone concept, coined by Owen Paterson, could help do that and indeed the coalition agreement (see pages 14- 15) has a pledge to produce a paper on reducing corporation tax locally.
Openly unionist, Cameron said that he would make good on his commitment to dealing with Northern Ireland in an impartial way. For the PM, his standing “shoulder to shoulder” with Gordon Brown over the Hillsborough Agreement, even though the UUP were at odds, highlights this.
On a previous pledge to end Sinn Féin’s allowances he said that a change would be purely a matter for the House of Commons “if it wishes … to make its own views known.”
The new PM warned against excessive deficits but said that no part of the UK would be singled out for cuts. New cuts could be delayed until next year, when others would also be made, but that would represent a ‘double hit’ in return for a short-term reprieve this year. That option will be open to all three devolved regions.
On Northern Ireland
David Cameron’s first words on Northern Ireland affairs look hard-line now but came against a backdrop of delayed decommissioning. In writing, he asked John Reid “what his policy is on the inclusion of political representatives of armed terrorist organisations in the Government of Northern Ireland.”
The reply, on 18 July 2001, explained that each Executive minister had a “legitimate right to hold that position” as long as they were committed to “exclusively peaceful and democratic means”.
Interestingly, given later developments, his first oral exchange on local matters was with Lady Sylvia Hermon on 7 May that year, when she asked him if he thought district policing partnerships should be extended to England and Wales. “I certainly would,” he replied. “We often have things to learn from Northern Ireland.”
As Shadow Education Secretary, praise for the province’s results was forthcoming on 24 May 2005, when he was “sure that there is much that we can learn from the educational success there.”
Responding to Tony Blair’s last Queen’s Speech on 15 November 2006, he backed efforts to restore power-sharing and devolution
“We are clear that if that is going to succeed, Sinn Féin must support the police, the courts and the rule of law,” he continued, “and it can start by telling its supporters to co-operate with the police investigation into the brutal murder of Robert McCartney.”
Cameron made sure to pay this tribute on Blair’s last day (27 June 2007): “He has considerable achievements to his credit, whether it is peace in Northern Ireland, whether it is his work in the developing world, which I know will endure.”
Emotively, the province was named in the 42-day detention debate (11 June 2008), when Cameron claimed that ex-soldiers who served there warned that “this sort of measure could actually help the terrorists rather than hurt them”.
He united with Brown on 11 March last year, to mourn the murders of Mark Quinsey, Patrick Azimkar and Stephen Carroll. The “callous killers” were condemned and he called on everyone to work with the police so they could be “found, caught, charged and convicted.”
A last pre-election comment came on 8 February 2010: “Does the Prime Minister share my hope that this – a return to normal, healthy, democratic devolved politics as part of the United Kingdom [through the Hillsborough Agreement] – can now really happen in Northern Ireland?”
