1 June 2025
SDLP Leader of the Opposition Matthew O’Toole MLA has said that the only viable route for Northern Ireland to rejoin the European Union is through a vote for a New Ireland under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
He was speaking ahead of a landmark Opposition motion in the Assembly, nine years on from the June 2016 Brexit vote, which states that the only viable route for Northern Ireland to rejoin the EU is via a New Ireland.
Given the majority in the Assembly who claim to support Northern Ireland rejoining the EU, O’Toole will challenge other parties to acknowledge the structural shift in British politics, with Nigel Farage’s Reform now having a serious prospect of holding power, meaning the prospect of UK rejoining the EU – and Northern Ireland’s power to influence that outcome – is miniscule and a New Ireland is the only route back to EU membership.
The SDLP recently set out detailed proposals in its policy paper Our European Future, aimed at strengthening links between the North and the EU. As the most pro-European party in the North, the SDLP has been consistent in championing the prospect of rejoining the EU as a critical part of the argument for constitutional change.
South Belfast MLA Mr O’Toole said:
“The SDLP welcomes the improved cooperation between the UK and the EU following the recent summit in London, along with progress in a number of areas that begin to ease some post-Brexit frictions.
“We always knew Brexit would be disastrous for the whole UK economy, for Northern Ireland and relationships across these islands. Sadly, so it has proven. Northern Ireland was dragged out of Europe against its will, and our politics has suffered the consequences. Now, the politics of Britain continues its irresistible drift towards Faragism and nativism – with the very real prospect of Reform in Government in a few short years. And we have virtually no power to stop that happening.
“But we do have a viable pathway to a different future - a European future - and that is through a new Ireland. It is time all parties who claim to be pro-European and reject the Faragification of UK politics to acknowledge our only route back into Europe is via an inclusive, hopeful new Ireland.”