Ireland will be united, says Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown said a united Ireland would be ‘a long process where people have got to come together and find a way of agreeing’. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has said it is inevitable that Ireland will become united at some point in the future, in a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian.

While he added that any union would necessarily be “a long process” and based on mutual agreement, Brown’s comments are notable both because of his vehement opposition to Scottish independence, but also because of his involvement in government in efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.