The last time a Taoiseach met a British prime minister at a wedding venue on Merseyside’s Wirral peninsula, they announced a diplomatic breakthrough on trade rules, only for the UK government to unilaterally junk the agreement soon afterwards.
On Thursday at Inglewood Manor, Micheál Martin and Keir Starmer seemed determined to ensure that, this time, the mutual bonhomie stuck, unlike the ill-fated Brexit meeting in 2019 of their predecessors Leo Varadkar and Boris Johnson, who met at Thornton Manor just up the road.
Back then, and after winning election soon after, Johnson effectively set fire to the Brexit solution he cooked up with Varadkar at Thornton Manor. Even the hotel burned down sometime afterwards.
Two different Edwardian estates on the splendid Wirral, two different political atmospheres under new regimes, one glaring difference: Starmer is no Johnson. Britain’s Labour prime minister opened Thursday’s UK-Ireland summit at Inglewood with the declaration of a “new era” in relations.
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“We have turned the page on the turbulent years,” said Starmer. Across the table in the hotel’s wood-panelled Burton suite, Martin almost cooed with satisfaction, as did his four Cabinet colleagues who also made the trip – Tánaiste Simon Harris, Minister for the Environment Darragh O’Brien, Minister for Education Helen McEntee and Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan.
In this game of geopolitical five-a-side, Starmer lined out alongside his deputy Angela Rayner, climate secretary Ed Miliband, home secretary Yvette Cooper and Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn. It was soon their turn to listen as the Irish delegation lauded the improved relations. Miliband’s head almost fell from his shoulders, he was nodding along so furiously as the Taoiseach spoke about deepening co-operation on energy – borne out in the joint statement issued later on.
“We’re both windy spots. Therein lies our potential,” said Martin. Blowing for power instead of blowing hard makes such a political difference.
The formalities of Thursday’s summit were preceded on Wednesday evening by a cultural reception in the Museum of Liverpool, a half-hour drive from Inglewood in the Scouse city. Attendees included executives from organisations such as the Football Association of Ireland, assorted business executives, community leaders and local politicians – the great and the good of the Irish in Britain.
Starmer is often – and arguably unfairly – accused by his critics in British media of being robotic. If so, at the museum reception he had been programmed to say the word “fantastic”. He incessantly applied it to everything from the food by London-based chef Anna Haugh, from Tallaght; the venue; the city and the very idea that Irish and British leaders could meet in such an era of warm relations.
Afterwards, the prime minister and the Taoiseach moved on to a nearby restaurant where, it is understood, they dined together while their delegations ate in an adjacent room. A few of the Irish attendees then retired to the Hilton Hotel on the waterfront to watch Liverpool’s Champions League match in Paris, where victory for the away team must have put Ireland’s ambassador to Britain, Reds fan Martin Fraser, in even better form than the convivial political atmosphere on all sides.
Next morning, the two leaders attended a breakfast with business leaders before convening on the Wirral, where their ministerial colleagues had already gathered to await their arrival. Starmer arrived shortly before 9.30am, traipsing through the lobby in discombobulated fashion seeking a room in which to deposit his briefcase. Rayner nipped outside to take a call. Miliband popped his head around a door. Benn peered through the windows before, finally, the Taoiseach arrived in one of the fleet of UK government Range Rovers crawling around the 38-acre estate grounds.
They lined up for their five-a-side with a few non-playing civil servants at each end of the table, and after remarks for the cameras – Starmer was still in “fantastic” mode – they got down to business.
Much of the spade work had been done beforehand by the political teams in Westminster, Dublin and at the Irish Embassy in London. The result was a detailed 38-point joint statement from Martin and Starmer. They spoke about working together to buttress “the global multilateral system and international law”, relevant in the context of the conflicts in Gaza and also Ukraine.
They promised co-operation on maritime security, such as the protection of the subsea cables that land in Ireland carrying digital data between the US and Europe, and which the Russians have been openly snooping around for several years.
The two states will co-operate further on the building of wind energy assets in the Irish and Celtic seas – energy was one of the dominant issues discussed across the table in the Burtin suite. They will set up an “economic security exchange to share good practices and experiences”. They also agreed to establish a joint youth forum to drive ideas for the future.
Starmer also mentioned that he saw the British-Irish alliance as critical for helping to improve the UK’s co-operation with the European Union. Afterwards, Martin headed for Brussels for a meeting of EU leaders. Starmer, meanwhile, was also invited to Brussels but instead will only dial in on Friday – domestically he can’t be seen to be attending EU meetings just yet.
When it comes to repairing the damage of recent years, it must be one step at a time.
