Ireland will be united, says Gordon Brown

Former PM believes Northern Ireland will leave UK in the long term – but remains opposed to Scottish independence

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has said it is inevitable that Ireland will become united at some point in the future, in a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian.

While he added that any union would necessarily be “a long process” and based on mutual agreement, Brown’s comments are notable both because of his vehement opposition to Scottish independence, but also because of his involvement in government in efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland .

He was Tony Blair’s chancellor when the Good Friday peace agreement was signed in 1998. In 2010, he was prime minister when justice and policing powers were devolved to Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, another major step for reconciliation.

But, speaking to the Guardian’s Saturday magazine, Brown argued that Northern Ireland had a potentially different position with regards to the rest of the UK than, for example, Scotland .

Asked about continued pressure for Scottish independence, Brown said: “Scotland’s got to find a way of living in cooperation with other countries, and independence would not be the right way forward. We’re geographically, economically, socially, culturally linked to the rest of the United Kingdom, whether it’s Wales, England or parts of Ireland .”

Questioned about whether the geographical link of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland meant uniting the two made sense, he replied: “Yes. Well, of course, in the long term, Ireland will be united.”

Such a process would be, he added, “a long process where people have got to come together and find a way of agreeing.