FORMER UK PRIME minister Gordon Brown has said that it is inevitable that Ireland will be united in the long term.<\/p>\n
In an interview<\/a> with The Guardian\u2019s Saturday magazine, Brown was asked whether the geographical link between the North and the Republic meant it made sense to unite the two.<\/p>\n \u201cYes. Well, of course, in the long term, Ireland will be united,\u201d he said, adding that it would be \u201ca long process where people have got to come together and find a way of agreeing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBasically, that is the issue: whether people can actually agree.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown, who led the UK from 2007 to 2010, made the comments in the wake of UK prime minister Andy Burnham\u2019s remarks this week that a\u00a0united Ireland referendum is \u201coff the table<\/a>\u201c.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Brown was Tony Blair\u2019s chancellor when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998, and was prime minister when policing and justice powers were devolved in Northern Ireland in 2010.<\/p>\n Brown, who is Scottish born and raised, has vehemently opposed Scottish independence. But speaking to The Guardian, Brown said that\u00a0Northern Ireland had a potentially different position in relation to the rest of the UK than Scotland.<\/p>\n \u201cScotland\u2019s got to find a way of living in cooperation with other countries, and independence would not be the right way forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re geographically, economically, socially, culturally linked to the rest of the United Kingdom, whether it\u2019s Wales, England or parts of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown also told The Guardian that he did not wish to be a \u201cbackseat driver\u201d when telling Andy Burnham \u2013 who previously served in Brown\u2019s cabinet \u2013 what to do.<\/p>\n Burnham\u2019s remarks have drawn an angry response<\/a> from nationalist politicians, with Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald saying that no prime minister has the right to \u201chigh-handedly\u201d remove the provision for a unity referendum from the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n Niamh Smyth, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, also said that she\u00a0\u201ccategorically and fundamentally\u201d disagrees<\/a>\u00a0with Burnham\u2019s comments.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, DUP leader Gavin Robinson said Burnham had \u201cput to bed the nonsense\u201d speculation over a unity poll.<\/p>\n The Good Friday Agreement specifies that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland \u2013 Chris Bryant \u2013 can decide to hold a border poll, also saying there is a duty to call one if it appears likely a majority would vote for Irish unification.<\/p>\n The people of Ireland must also vote in favour to effect constitutional change.<\/p>\n