Conservative MP Steve Baker has apologised for some of his behaviour towards Ireland and the EU during the Brexit process.
The Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) was speaking at the Conservative party conference.
He reflected that he and others did not “always behave in a way which encouraged Ireland and the European Union to trust us to accept that they have legitimate interests”.
“I am sorry about that,” he said.
Mr Baker, a well-known Eurosceptic, said “relations with Ireland are not where they should be and we all need to work extremely hard to improve them”.
He added: “Actually the demise of our late majesty gave us an opportunity to meet leading Irish figures, and I said to some of them that I am sorry that we did not always respect your legitimate interests.
“I hope they won’t mind me saying I could feel the ice thawing a bit.”
He was speaking on a panel alongside Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris and Conservative peer Lord Jonathan Caine, who is parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Northern Ireland Office.
Much of the discussion centred around the Northern Ireland Protocol, which keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods – avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.
“To respect the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) does mean to have respect for all three strands,” said Mr Baker.
“As a unionist said to me they have seen constitutional change without their consent through the protocol,” he added.
“Of course, others will argue they’ve seen constitutional change through having left the EU, without their consent.
“But now’s the time to really move on and accept the Belfast/GFA agreement as the fundamental fact which brings peace and enables government in Northern Ireland.”
However he then added that despite acting with “ferocious determination to get the UK out of the EU”, he wanted to bring some “humility”.
“I want to accept and acknowledge that I and others didn’t always behave in a way that encouraged Ireland and the EU to trust us to accept that they have legitimate interests, legitimate interests that we’re willing to respect – because they do and we are willing to respect them,” he said.
“I’m sorry about that, because relations with Ireland are not where they should be and we all need to work extremely hard to improve them and I know that we are doing so,” he added.
However he added that the government was resolved to get progress on the protocol.
“It is not acceptable that Northern Ireland is so separate from Great Britain right now under the protocol, the protocol which at the moment is only partially implemented,” he said.
“That combination of humility and resolve and that willingness to build up relations and say actually, yes, we do want to be Ireland’s closest friends and partners, as we all respect all three strands of the Belfast/GFA – that really is where we need to be,” he added.
He said people were keen for a negotiated solution.
Ireland’s Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin said on Sunday that he detects “genuine engagement and a wish to get this issue resolved” from Prime Minister Liz Truss.