With the marking of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement (10th April 1998)an historical footnote is that Tony Benn thought it should go further.
When Mo Mowlam made a statement in the Commons on the Agreement on 20th April 1998. Benn asked if there was any reason why post Agreement Gerry Adams and Martin Guinness should not sit in the Commons. Benn notes ‘I got a bit of a brush off’.
Benn had a point about democracy and one the Government did not want to pursue. On the other hand long standing Sinn Fein policy is not to sit in the Commons since their policy is a 32 County United Irish Parliament. The Labour Party doesn’t organise in the 6 Counties of Northern Ireland for broadly related reasons
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