ANGLO-IRISH RELATIONS are at their lowest point since the Good Friday Agreement thanks to Brexit and 14 years of Conservative power, a Labour candidate in London has said.
Liam Conlon, who is running to become a first-time MP, said a Labour government would attempt to undo the damage done in recent years.
Conlon, the son of Sue Gray and grandson of Irish immigrants, said careless comments by senior Tory figures about Northern Ireland have done immense damage.
“Remember when Boris Johnson trivialised the border by comparing it to the border between Camden and Islington (two areas in London)? You had Priti Patel, who used language of the Famine as a threat to Ireland.”
In late 2018, then-Home Secretary Patel implied that a no-deal Brexit might mean food shortages in Ireland, saying this should be used as leverage in negotiations. Patel denied referencing the Great Famine, in which over one million people died in the 1840s and 1850s, and said her comments were taken out of context.
Either way, the perceived lack of understanding of issues in Northern Ireland by certain British politicians soured relations in a post-Brexit environment.
In an interview with The Journal, Conlon said: “The relationship between Britain and Ireland has been allowed to, I think, probably fall to its lowest level post the Good Friday Agreement because of actions and language used by the Conservative Party.”
If the Labour Party is elected as expected this week, things will be different under Keir Starmer, Conlon told us. He said Starmer has “a genuine affection for Ireland” and “plays his five-a-side football games in a Donegal jersey”.
Sportswear aside, Starmer has made certain commitments aimed at improving Anglo-Irish elections. The biggest, perhaps, is promising to revisit the controversial Troubles Legacy Act.
The legislation, which shut down historical investigations into crimes committed in Northern Ireland between 1966 and 1998, has been sharply criticised across the policial spectrum and by groups advocating on behalf of victims and their families.
“I’m against it for a number of reasons,” Starmer said last month. “The first is it doesn’t have the support of any of the political parties in Northern Ireland. This is the wrong way of doing business.”
Conlon agrees that the legislation needs to be revisited. His family is related to a Catholic priest who was shot dead in the Ballymurphy massacre in 1971.
I’m a relative of a victim of the Ballymurphy massacre, of Fr Hugh Mullen, who was a Catholic priest who was murdered.
“So I know, from growing up, the importance of truth and justice. And people want closure.”
Conlon said the fact the Conservative Party brought in this legislation – despite it being almost unanimously opposed across the island of Ireland, runs counter to the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement which calls for “cooperation, trust and respect”.
“This was unilaterally imposed against everyone’s wishes in Northern Ireland, every victims’ group on a cross-community basis.”
Conlon, who is a dual British-Irish citizen, is the chairperson of the Labour Party Irish Society. The group boasts over 1,000 members and supporters across the UK, but he expects a jump in membership numbers later this week.
Conlon is Labour’s candidate in Beckenham and Penge, a new constituency in the southeast of London. He is “confident” about taking the seat, given Labour’s polling numbers, but “not complacent”.
Since its creation as a constituency in 1950, Beckenham has always voted for a Conservative MP. However, the constituency was recently withdrawn to include parts of Penge and Lewisham West – more Labour-friendly areas.
The outgoing MP, Colonel Bob Stewart, defected from the Conservaties after he was last year found guilty of racially abusing an activist. He sat as an independent for his final few months in parliament. His conviction was quashed on appeal, but he agreed to step down before the election.
Polls have fluctuated in recent weeks but Labour still has a lead of around 20 points over the Conservatives with Reform UK in third and the Liberal Democrats in fourth, according to this analysis by BBC News.
Unless there is a massive upset, Labour will storm home with a large majority. Conlon is hoping to be one of the candidates who turns a blue seat red.
Conlon said people in the UK are ready for change after 14 years of Tory rule, “constant lies” from the government, and poor conduct such as senior figures like Johnson breaking lockdown rules during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Conlon’s mother, Sue Gray, investigated the so-called partygate scandal. Her report into parties at Downing Street during lockdown played a key role in Johnson’s downfall as prime minister.
Last year, she quit her position as a senior civil servant to take on the job of Labour leader Keir Starmer’s chief of staff – much to the annoyance of the Conservatives.
Conlon said he and his mother haven’t seen much of each other during the campaign as they’ve both been so busy.
He is quick to point out that he has been involved with Labour for much longer than her.
“I was in in the Labour Party for about 10 years. One of the jokes I said when she took the job was, ‘This was my thing. How are you coming into this now?’”
Conlon said he would be “very proud of her” if she became chief of staff to the prime minister.
If she did, she’d be the first woman to solely hold the role, he notes. (Theresa May had two joint chiefs of staff, one male and one female.)
“She’ll also be the first school leaver [to hold the role]. You know, she didn’t go to university. She’ll be the first child of immigrants to be Chief of Staff to the British Prime Minister.
I think her mum from Waterford and her dad from Fermanagh – when they made the journey to London, and her mum worked as a barmaid and her dad in a furniture shop – they probably wouldn’t have thought that she’d have got to where she where she is.
Gray and her husband, country and western singer husband Bill Conlon, ran a pub in Newry at the height of the Troubles in the 1980s.
Somewhat unepectedly, Conlon brings up Philomema Begley during our coversation, saying the famous singer would often visit their family home.
“On a Saturday morning I’d come down, and you could tell she was there because you would smell the perfume halfway down the stairs,” he recalls.
Conlon has spent years campaigning for disability rights. He was inspired to get invovled in activism after he shattered his hip in a “freak accident” when he was 13 and was unable to walk for years.
“I couldn’t walk for four years after that, so I was in and out of hospital, NHS hospitals, across London. I had lots of surgery. I missed a lot of my education.”
I became one of the youngest people in Britain to have a hip replacement when I was 17.
Conlon said, given “how things have changed in the NHS, I wonder whether a child today would have the same chance of recovery as I did”.
“Probably not,” he added.
“I’m very fortunate now that I can walk, but I can’t play sport, I can’t run. I drive an adapted car.
“There are very, very few disabled MPs in Parliament. And one of the things I really want to change, well, I want to be a national voice for disabled people.
“I’d like to do for disabled people what Harriet Harman (who was a Labour MP for over 40 years) has done for women.”
Conlon said, if elected, he will also focus on the cost-of-living crisis, health and housing issues – saying these come up very often when he meets constituents.
When asked if voters bring up Gaza on the doorsteps, he says no. “It comes up occasionally, not that much.”
Starmer’s position on Gaza has caused anger among some in his own party, and his own constituency, with the leader facing criticism for not calling for a permanent ceasefire sooner.
Conlon said his party’s position is “very clear”.
“The Labour position is for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“It was a Labour motion that passed in the House of Commons that called for every step being taken to prevent further civilian deaths, the release of all hostages, and unimpeded aid into Gaza.”
He said the topic is “not one of the top issues” voters raise with him.
“The top issues really are the cost of living, the NHS. You have parts of this constituency, where you have genuine child poverty in London. And that’s where people are at.”
Contains reporting from Press Association
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