EU to RIP UK APART: Brussels will PRY Northern Ireland from UK, warns DAN HANNAN
THE IRISH border row is merely a plot to “pry” Northern Ireland from the UK, Daniel Hannan has warned.
The MEP and Brexit campaigner said the ongoing crisis over the future of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic was “being inflamed”.
Mr Hannan said neither side wanted a border and Dublin and Brussels were exploiting the situation for their own purposeless.
He wrote in the Telegraph: “What’s really going on, I suspect, is that some Dublin politicians thought they saw an opportunity to ease Northern Ireland, which had voted Remain, a little further out of the UK.
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“Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s Taoiseach, is proposing that the province stay in the EU’s customs union.
“That plainly won’t happen.”
But it appears, based on leaked draft papers put forward by Theresa May, this is now a definite possibility.
This morning it was revealed Mrs May will “align” Northern Ireland with the Republic with “continued” regulations between the two states - rather than between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
This could lead to a break down in talks between the UK and the EU talks, he warned.
He said: “If the EU insists on a special status for Northern Ireland, despite the lack of any practical need, and regardless of Britain’s generous financial offer, it will be behaving not as a partner but an adversary.
“If that happens, most British people will conclude, regretfully, that there is no point in talking further.”
And this lunchtime DUP leader Arlene Foster said she would “not stand” for a change to the situation in Northern Ireland.
She claimed Dublin was attempting to “unilaterally change” the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
She said: “We have been very clear Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as rest of UK. We will not accept any form of deregulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the UK.
“Economically and constitutionally, the UK must not be compromised in any way.
“Her Majesty’s government understands the positions. The Prime Minister has told the House of Commons there will be no border in the Irish Sea. She has been clear UK is leaving EU as a whole.”
