Kate Hoey emerges as a potential high-profile recruit for Reform UK, but the Brexit veteran insists on unbreakable promises from Nigel Farage to safeguard Northern Ireland’s position within the UK. The former high jump champion splits her time between the House of Lords, Belfast, and Rathlin Island off Northern Ireland’s coast, renowned for its puffins and seals. She urges Farage to prioritize Northern Ireland’s UK ties and rejects the arrangement aimed at preventing border checks with the Irish Republic.
Brexit Warrior’s Legacy
“Nigel has to step up to the plate on Northern Ireland,” Hoey states. “And I think he will.” A torchbearer for Labour’s eurosceptic wing, she secured the Vauxhall seat in London’s 1989 by-election and served until 2019. Hoey voted against UK entry into the European Economic Community in the 1975 referendum and defied party lines to oppose the 1993 Maastricht Treaty.
Labour leader John Smith called her home demanding resignation. She recalls: “I’m amazed at myself when I think about it. I said, ‘Oh well, if you want me to resign, why don’t you sack me?’ And he said, ‘Well, you’re sacked.'”
During her Home Office tenure under Tony Blair, visits to Brussels with Jack Straw reinforced her aversion to the EU. “I hated the whole wheeling and dealing stuff,” she says. Despite representing a strongly pro-Remain area, her drive to exit the bloc remained unwavering. As a County Antrim farmer’s daughter and former PE teacher, she chaired the pro-hunting Countryside Alliance from 2005 and developed programs for clubs like Arsenal.
Boris Johnson sought her sports expertise and later appointed her to the Lords in 2020 to promote grassroots initiatives.
Critique of Labour’s EU Stance
From the Lords, Hoey monitors Keir Starmer’s EU engagement with concern. She describes his time as Shadow Brexit Secretary under Jeremy Corbyn as marked by “awful, awful chicanery.” Labour sought to block the 2016 referendum outcome, she asserts, with Starmer harboring ambitions to rejoin the EU. “[He] is obviously a total Europhile,” she says. His Brexit “reset” equates to reentry by another name.
Brussels misses UK funds, she notes, and many EU laws linger on British books—a depressing reality. Yet she holds no regrets: “Ten years on, there are lots of problems about what’s happened but if there was a vote tomorrow I would vote to Leave again.” Campaigning in northern Red Wall seats revealed strong Brexit support. “People would come up to me at the end and say, ‘Oh, thank goodness there’s a Labour MP here,'” she remembers.
Hoey laments Labour’s lack of independent thinkers: “You wonder, ‘Do they have an independent thought ever, any of them?’” Her advice to Starmer: “Leave right away. Go back to the law. You’re obviously obsessed about international law. Go back and be a lawyer.”
Eyeing Reform UK
Recent speculation links Hoey to Reform UK after Farage hinted at a Labour defection. As an unaffiliated peer, she enjoys whip-free freedom. Reform appeals amid public frustration with the two-party system: “I think the country is looking for a big shake-up… A lot of people will vote Reform because they think they couldn’t do any worse.”
She maintains close ties with deputy leader Richard Tice, sees Farage occasionally, and supported Reform in the recent Gorton and Denton by-election. However, she demands upfront commitment to the union, Northern Ireland, and full escape from the Windsor Framework governing its EU relations.
Northern Ireland Devotion
Titled Baroness Hoey of Lylehill and Rathlin, she honors her Ulster roots. She condemns Sinn Fein and IRA Troubles violence as intolerable random cruelty, likening border killings to ethnic cleansing. Power-sharing at Stormont forces unionists to collaborate with those seeking Northern Ireland’s destruction.
Hoey identifies as British from Northern Ireland, not Irish. Recent DNA results delight her: 74% Scottish. At 79, she thrives on debate and adventure, fresh from skiing with her sister.
Her path from young Marxist to Brexiteer hero stems from common sense. She puzzles over New Labour’s EU infatuation and rejects rejoin calls: “Anyone who doesn’t think that we’re better off making our own decisions and being an independent country, I can’t understand it.” Remainers face a resolute opponent in Hoey.
