‘Realism, not Tory politics key to Brexit’
SIMON Coveney says Brexit progress must be delivered through ‘realism’ and not what is acceptable internally in the British Conservative party.
UK prime minister Theresa May will today hold a crucial meeting of her deeply-divided cabinet in order to plot a clear path forward for Britain’s exit from the EU. The Tory split over whether to pursue a hard or soft Brexit has hamstrung negotiations and pushed the UK closer to a cliffedge, no-deal exit.
But speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, the Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister said he does not believe there will be a ‘no-deal’ Brexit because the UK government is not prepared for the ‘huge disruption’ it would cause to their economy. ‘Largely what has been happening to date is that Britain has been negotiating with itself since March and not negotiating with the EU at all.
‘We can’t make progress until there’s a proper negotiation between the EU and the UK on the basis of realism as opposed to what is acceptable internally in the British Conservative party’ he said. ‘I don’t believe that Britain is prepared for a no-deal Brexit. It would cause huge disruption to the British economy and it would put the Irish economy under huge pressure also. So, I think that is a very, very unlikely scenario.’
Mr Coveney also suggested that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the UK would be unable to proceed with its stated plans to leave the Customs Union and Single Market because of their commitments to honour the Good Friday Agreement and avoid border infrastructure in Ireland.
Mr Coveney said he did not believe there would be a majority in the British House of Commons that would support the country leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement.
But he added that he believes that the penny is finally beginning to drop for the UK negotiating team. ‘We will see the British government taking some firm and clear steps, based on the realities of what they now understand from the Barnier task force in terms of what’s possible and what’s not,’ he said.
Mr Coveney was speaking in New York at Ireland’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council earlier this week, a campaign he said was partly driven by Brexit.
He said: ‘In many ways, Ireland is continuing to grow and expand as an independent young country. We’ve spent a lot of our history in the shadow of Britain.’