There are some within Stormont and Westminster calling for “reform” of the NI Assembly structures. There also some journalistic cheerleaders for this campaign. We need to be very much alive to the ramifications and the motivations behind such calls for ‘reform’.

If we want an example of what happens without robust cross-community protections, we should look no further than Belfast City Hall or Nationalist dominated Councils in the West. The majority seek to undermine every vestige of Britishness and try to fly Palestinian Flags where the Union Flag should fly. 

Whilst we have made great strides, Northern Ireland is still a divided society. That is the lived reality, and the progress we have achieved has only ever been secured when both Unionists and Nationalists have felt respected and protected within our political institutions. Cross-community consent is not a mere procedural hurdle in our Assembly and Executive; it is the very foundation of stable government here and without the support of both Unionists and Nationalists political agreements would never have been reached. Without that cross-community consent, trust breaks down and instability takes hold.

With members of Edgarstown Accordion Band from Portadown, who made the journey this year to the Cenotaph in London for Remembrance Sunday

When unionism held more than 50% of the seats within the Assembly, both the SDLP and Sinn Fein strongly and loudly advocated the need for cross-community protections. They spoke often about parity of esteem, partnership and safeguards against majority rule. Those principles were enshrined in the Belfast Agreement, and successor political agreements, and held up as almost pseudo-sacred text of solemn guarantee that Northern Ireland could only function if decisions commanded support across both communities, and at that time, specifically from political nationalism/republicanism. 

Yet now, with fewer unionists in the Assembly and an increasingly united left-wing nationalist focused coalition comprising Sinn Fein, Alliance and the SDLP, we are seeing a significant change in tone. The very principles, and protections, that were once defended as essential for nationalists, are now treated as obstacles to be removed or relics of a period to be rewritten. The pages of the agreement that once mattered so deeply are being flicked past, or in some cases torn out altogether, replaced by a growing desire for nationalist majoritarian control regardless of what unionists think.

For parties like the SDLP in particular to be cheerleading for this in the Assembly this week is not only inconsistent, but politically dangerous. Since 1998, they have claimed to be the defenders of the Belfast Agreement and the legacy of John Hume. The 1998 Agreement was built, they told us, to protect everyone, not just one community when it suits. Playing fast and loose with its most fundamental tenets undermines confidence, breeds mistrust, and weakens the stability and foundations our institutions depend upon. These parties should know better than play this game. 

Unionists will not countenance any attacks from such a coalition within the Assembly and we will call out such hypocrisy.  The previous UK Government undermined parallel consent on the issue of Protocol and we will not allow any further undermining of parallel consent from any quarter under the guise of so-called ‘reform’.

Power sharing must mean exactly that. Sharing power, not shaping it to suit the agenda of one side. Too often, talk of so-called “reform” is little more than an attempt to disguise radical rewriting of the rules that hold this place together. 

Northern Ireland needs a politics rooted in respect and consent. Our focus should be on stability, delivery and restoring confidence, not on shaking the foundations that make power sharing possible in the first place.

Yours sincerely,

Rt. Hon. Gavin Robinson MP

DUP Leader