Brexit has made a united Ireland more likely, Leo Varadkar has said.
The former taoiseach made the statement before calling on all Irish political parties to make manifesto pledges to pursue reunification.
The 45-year-old, who served two terms as prime minister, said the parties should declare Irish unity to be “an objective, not an aspiration” before a general election that must be held by March.
Sir Keir Starmer has declared a “reset” in relations with Ireland and the EU and wants to negotiate closer trade and security ties with the bloc.
Mr Varadkar said the push for a united Ireland would not damage Anglo-Irish relations because Britain needed “a lot of help” from Dublin in upcoming negotiations with the EU.
“I think almost all trends point towards unification in the next few decades,” Mr Varadkar, who was prime minister during the Brexit negotiations that strained relations between Dublin and London, said.
“There are lots of different things in its favour. There are the demographics, the fact that the Republic is so much more prosperous now than the North, and then also that Brexit has changed the UK’s relationship with Europe and the rest of the world.”
Most Northern Irish want to remain in UK
The Good Friday Agreement says the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland should call a border poll if it “appears likely” a majority would back unity. Another referendum also has to be held in the Republic under the agreement.
Recent polls, however, show most Northern Irish voters want to remain in the UK. Fleur Anderson, Northern Ireland minister, said a border poll was “not a priority” for Labour at a fringe event at the party’s conference in Liverpool earlier this week.
Brexit gave the debate over Irish unity fresh impetus because a majority of people in Northern Ireland voted against it, and the post-Brexit trading arrangements led to a two-year boycott of Stormont by the DUP.
Since Brexit, Sinn Fein has won the Northern Ireland Assembly elections, local elections and, most recently, became the region’s largest Westminster party in July’s General Election.
On Sunday, Mary Lou McDonald, the Sinn Fein president, demanded that the UK stop “dodging” giving a timeline for a border poll, which it wants called by 2030.
