Pressure on Theresa May as Tory MPs back fresh bid to overturn abortion ban in Northern Ireland

Several Tory MPs have have backed a fresh bid to make abortion legal in Northern Ireland, piling pressure on the Government.



Labour’s Stella Creasy and Conor McGinn are lead signatories to an amendment to the Northern Ireland bill that would hand officials greater power in the absence of a functioning Stormont.

But seven Tory MPs - including Foreign Affairs Select Committee chair Tom Tughendhat and former ministers Ed Vaizey and Crispin Blunt - have also put their names to the plan.

It comes a day after five serving ministers were among Tory MPs who backed a separate bid by Labour MP Diana Johnson to change the law.

Writing for PoliticsHome, Ms Creasy said that more than 100 MPs have signed her amendment, which would abolish the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act and bring human rights law in the province in line with the rest of the UK.

If selected for debate in the House, parliament could end Victorian rules which make obtaining or helping somebody obtain an abortion a criminal offence.

Ms Creasy and Mr Ginn’s bid is also said to have the support of Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson, dozens of the party’s backbenchers and Green MP Caroline Lucas.

Writing for PoliticsHome, Ms Creasy said: The Government protests it is for the Northern Ireland Assembly to address these matters.

“At the same time today it is rushing emergency legislation, The Northern Ireland Bill, through parliament in order to give civil servants and the Secretary of State the powers to run departments there because the Assembly isn’t functioning…

“That over 110 MPs from across Parliament have co-signed shows they agree devolution should not equal denial of rights in such democratic dysfunction.

“With colleagues supporting this including those on the Government benches, it is clear it is the delicate balance of power in Westminster and the role of the DUP in maintaining that which stands in the way of resolution, not the delicacies of devolution.”

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Office said: “As abortion is devolved in Northern Ireland, any question of future reform to laws or policy is rightly one for a restored Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly to debate.

“That is why this Government is focused on restoring devolved government and this Bill is an important step forward. It creates the necessary time and space to restart political talks with the aim of restoring devolved Government at the earliest opportunity.”