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Calls for Ulster law reform after Irish abortion vote landslide

Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, hailed the result a 'quiet revolution' - PA
Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, hailed the result a 'quiet revolution' - PA

Ministers are facing pressure to relax abortion laws in Northern Ireland, following a landslide vote to overturn a ban on terminations in the Republic.

Last night Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, hailed the “culmination of a quiet revolution”, as it emerged the country had voted by 66.4 per cent to 33.6 per cent to replace the eighth amendment, which bans abortion unless the mother’s life is at risk.

MPs who have been campaigning for a relaxation of the law in Ulster, where  abortion is still highly restricted, pledged to table amendments to the Government’s proposed Domestic Abuse Bill, forcing a change. The move, backed by a number of Tories, would cause a headache for Theresa May, whose government is being propped up by the Democratic Unionist Party, which strongly opposes the reforms.

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP, yesterday called on Penny Mordaunt, the Women and Equalities minister, to “stand up to colleagues in Government stopping reform”.

Nicky Morgan, a Tory predecessor of Ms Mordaunt, said yesterday that she would support Ms Creasy’s planned amendments to the Bill. Ms Morgan, a former education secretary, was one of dozens of signatories to a letter in March calling for the Government to use the Bill to give women in Northern Ireland “comprehensive access to abortion in their own country”.

She said: “I think [the vote] is probably going to give more weight to amendments like the ones I think Stella will put down, and I hope Northern Ireland politicians will look very carefully at all of this and listen to all of the voices involved.”