Only alter Good Friday deal with cross-community consent, says Tony Blair

Former PM cautions against ‘top down’ changes to Northern Ireland peace deal to protect power sharing

The Good Friday agreement should only be changed with cross-community consent in Northern Ireland, Tony Blair has said, amid calls to amend the peace deal to prevent political parties from collapsing power sharing in the province.

The former prime minister, who played a pivotal role in negotiating the historic agreement in 1998, acknowledged that there was a case for reforming the devolved structures at Stormont, given the regularity of collapses in governance in the region over the last 25 years.