The big missing part of the jig-saw is to get the assembly back up and running here in Northern Ireland, to get shared government back in business, that is my objective, and we await the IRA statement to see if this will trigger a new dawn.

The agreement was described by Michael Ancram in the UK Parliament along with Gibraltar as a 'sell-out' which was overwhelmingly rejected in a referendum in November 2002. Member of Parliament
He contested Putney in the 1983 and 1987 general elections but was defeated on both occasions by Conservative David Mellor. Anti-apartheid
Hain became chairman of the Stop The Tour campaign which disrupted tours by the South African rugby union and cricket teams in 1969 and 1970.

He came to the UK from South Africa as a teenager and was a noted anti-apartheid campaigner in the 1970s. He was the Leader of the House of Commons from 2003 to 2005 and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007 under Blair and as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales from 2007 to 2008 under Brown. In 2007 he ran for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party coming fifth out of six candidates although his failure to declare donations during this contest led to his resignation in 2008.