(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Irish counterpart, Simon Harris, vowed to tackle the spread of online misinformation, as both leaders seek to prevent a repeat of recent anti-immigrant unrest fueled stoked by far-right groups.
Starmer pledged to collaborate on the shared threat on Saturday while in Dublin, where he was seeking to reset ties after years of strains over the UK’s exit from the European Union. The visit was the first by a British prime minister to Ireland in five years and the two sides agreed to hold a summit in March to discuss security, climate, trade and culture.
Both men are new to power — Harris took over following former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s resignation as ruling party leader in March — and Starmer’s Labour Party ended 14 years of Conservative rule with its election victory in July. While Starmer has met with German and French leaders Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron in recent weeks, the relationship with Ireland is considered particularly special as the two nations share close cultural links and a mutual interest in Northern Ireland.
The UK and Ireland are co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, the landmark treaty that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland dubbed “the Troubles,” which was in part achieved by Labour’s former leader Tony Blair. Starmer promised to uphold that pact in a news conference at Farmleigh House in Dublin.
“That reset can be meaningful, deep,” Starmer said. “Of course it covers the relationship between our two countries. Obviously it has to cover the Good Friday Agreement. I take very seriously our joint role in relation to that and I’ve been clear about that for many many years and we renew that commitment here today, and the wider EU reset.”
Starmer got another incentive to cooperate with Harris after far-right riots swept England just weeks after his election this summer. The unrest erupted after false reports spread online about the identity of the suspect in a stabbing in Southport, near Liverpool, that left three young girls dead.
Dublin was struck by similar episode far-riot violence in November — also prompted by a stabbing involving children.
The two leaders were also expected to have discussed key issues facing Northern Ireland, such as rebuilding Casement Park, a derelict sports stadium in Belfast, ahead of the Euro 2028 football competition at an estimated cost of £300 million ($394 million), despite some political opposition in the region.
Ireland is one of the UK’s top trading partners, with the relationship worth €100 billion ($111 billion) a year. The two leaders met with business representatives, including from AIB Group Plc and Associated British Food’s Primark, before heading to Dublin’s Aviva Stadium to watch Ireland and England go head-to-head in their first non-friendly football match to be played in Ireland in over three decades.
Starmer and Harris exchanged shirts for their respective national teams before attending an England-Ireland match later in the day. The game at Aviva Stadium was their first competitive head-to-head meeting in Ireland in more than three decades.
“Both of us said we wish to place British-Irish relations on a new path and I really appreciate the time you’ve given to that since being in office,” Harris said at the news conference. “Today we’re here in Dublin to flesh out what a reset actually looks like in a practical sense for our citizens. It has to be embedded in things like prosperity and peace.”
Replacing the controversial Legacy Act brought in under the previous administration will likely be on the agenda as well. The bill, which effectively gives an amnesty to those who killed during the conflict, is something Hilary Benn, the new UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is planning to repeal - although it’s not entirely clear what will replace it.
Most politicians in Northern Ireland disagree with the legislation and it’s been a major sticking point with the Irish government, which brought a legal challenge to the measure to the European Court of Human Rights.
“While achieving full consensus on legacy issues may simply not be possible,” Benn said in remarks prepared for delivery at the annual British-Irish Association Conference in Oxfordshire on Saturday, “I ask everyone to acknowledge that this is a government with a new approach, and we need a spirit of compromise.”
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