{"id":629216,"date":"2026-09-19T04:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629216\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T04:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:16:10","slug":"british-government-not-in-position-to-move-on-border-poll-says-taoiseach-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/629216\/","title":{"rendered":"British government \u2018not in position\u2019 to move on Border poll, says Taoiseach \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The British government is not ready to outline the criteria for holding a Border poll, according to Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>, speaking after meetingUK prime minister Andy Burnham<\/a> in Manchester on Friday.<\/p>\n

Last week Martin suggested the poll issue \u201chas to be discussed\u201d as it had been left \u201cdeliberately vague\u201d in the Belfast Agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, when asked after Friday\u2019s talks if Burnham was prepared to move forward on it, he replied: \u201cI don\u2019t think at this stage the British government is at that position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the Belfast Agreement at the outset of the talks at Number 10 North, the new Downing Street operation that Burnham has opened in Manchester as part of an effort to rebalance power away from Westminster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed how best to get the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement working more effectively,\u201d said Martin. He said the two leaders had a \u201cbroad discussion\u201d on the agreement and it is understood they discussed Irish unity.<\/p>\n

However, Martin refused to get into specifics of what they discussed on the unity topic, which is particularly politically sensitive in Britain for Burnham after US president Donald Trump last week said he wanted to see a reunified Ireland.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Donald Trump backs Irish unity in comments during Dublin visitOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Martin was the first world leader to visit Burnham at Number 10 North, which is temporarily housed in a building shared with GCHQ, the British government\u2019s cyber intelligence service. The ground floor includes a Slug & Lettuce pub.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we got off to a very good start,\u201d the Taoiseach said. \u201cWe have a [UK] prime minister who is instinctively very friendly towards us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach said he stressed to Burnham the importance of passing an agreement on legacy issues in the North, for which British legislation is due to be debated in the House of Commons next month.<\/p>\n

They also discussed European Union-British relations. Martin indicated that a summit between the bloc and Britain, whichwas postponed in July, may now happen in November.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be preferable if we could have a summit in November that could result in concrete outcomes,\u201d said the Taoiseach.<\/p>\n

When asked if an EU-UK agreement could be finalised in advance of the summit on outstanding issues, which include a veterinary deal and arrangements for third-level students, Martin said: \u201cThere is potential for progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking at the outset of the talks, Burnham said the relationship between the UK and the Republic \u201cmatters so much on every single level\u201d.<\/p>\n

Martin also praised the recent stance taken by Burnham\u2019s government over Israel and Palestine; Britain last week sanctioned Israeli settlements in the West Bank over violence committed by extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinian residents. He thanked the UK prime minister for \u201cstanding up for the humanitarian needs and rights\u201d of Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach also sympathised with Burnham following the death of the prime minister\u2019s father, Roy, at the beginning of the week.<\/p>\n

In the afternoon, the two leaders travelled to Ashton-in-Makerfield in Burnham\u2019s constituency, where they visited the Brian Boru club, the oldest Irish club in Britain. They met members of the area\u2019s long-standing Irish community, including Canon Patrick MacNally, a Mayo priest who was celebrating his 90th birthday.<\/p>\n

Martin revealed Burnham had asked him if he could go to an All-Ireland final. The two leaders also had what one official described as a \u201ctea off\u201d \u2013 a competition to see who made the best cup \u2013 which was recorded for the prime minister\u2019s social media feeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The British government is not ready to outline the criteria for holding a Border poll, according to Taoiseach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85530,24987,969,61,60,3410,1843,43,4268,9688],"class_list":["post-629216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-andy-burnham","tag-belfast-agreement","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-ukraine-crisis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}