Chris Bryant promises legacy commission and Stormont reform at Labour conference

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant used his Labour conference speech in Liverpool to promise a reformed legacy commission and urgent reform of Stormont. He said the government would deliver what he called the unfinished business of the Good Friday Agreement and warned political rivals not to abandon the European Convention on Human Rights.

Bryant thanked more than 300,000 people who served in Northern Ireland during Operation Banner, including soldiers, police officers, prison officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, clergy, undertakers, social workers and council staff. He said nobody wanted Northern Ireland to return to the 1990s and paid tribute to those who argued for peace 28 years ago, naming David Trimble, John Hume, Alf Dubs, Paul Murphy, Mo Mowlam, John Major, Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair.

He warned Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch that he would not leave the ECHR or tear up the Good Friday Agreement. He said they had either never read the agreement or did not care about it. He promised: 'we will not dump the European Convention on Human Rights, we will stand by it and we won't, and we won't tear up the Good Friday Agreement, we'll stand by that too.'

On legacy, Bryant said many thousands of people who lost loved ones had been told justice would have to wait as part of the compromise behind the Good Friday Agreement. He described families still seeking answers. One son sees the man he believes killed his father every time he goes to the supermarket but the killing has never been acknowledged. Another gave up a college music course to follow his brother into the army, only for his brother to be murdered without him knowing who killed him or why. A woman is still seeking answers about her brother, a soldier killed in the M62 bombing, and another person lost three relatives and still has no answers.

Bryant said it was wrong that Hillsborough families waited decades for answers and wrong that so many families in Northern Ireland, including more than a thousand veterans' families, were still waiting. He promised a reformed legacy commission so families in Northern Ireland and Great Britain could get the answers they had long sought. He said the government's Troubles Bill would be about candour, honesty and openness.

He added that veterans must not be dragged through the courts unnecessarily, saying repeating a process is reliving it. He said there should be the highest possible bar before anyone is asked to go through that again. He also said the Bill would state in black and white that there is no equivalence between the lawful actions of the armed forces and the deliberate acts of terrorists. He paid tribute to Hilary Benn for starting the process.

Turning to Stormont, Bryant joked about a BBC headline that asked whether 'colourful' Sir Chris Bryant would shake up Stormont. He said he was 'ever so slightly homosexual.' He then said Stormont needed to be shaken up and was crying out for change. He pointed out that six months into the financial year there was still no settled budget, which he said no councillor would consider normal.

Bryant said no one disagreed in private that urgent constitutional reform was needed in Northern Ireland. He wanted to work cross party and with the broadest possible consensus. He cited Mo Mowlam as an example of impatient leadership, quoting Neil Kinnock's line that she sometimes entered a room without opening the door. He told Northern Ireland politicians to work with him, or better, to work with each other and with him. He called for deals across the party divide and for private gripes to be set aside for the common good.

He said this could build a stronger, more united future for Northern Ireland, whatever team people support, what language they speak, what band they play in, or whether they hate ABBA, love bingo or keep their toaster in a cupboard. He ended by saying he was going to Belfast.