Brexit chief: border being used by EU to pressurise the UK

‘We hope to come up with a solution’

THE UK Brexit secretary has said some within the EU see a hard Irish border as a political ‘pressure point’ and were using it to their advantage. Dominic Rabb was addressing MPs in the House of Commons, where Labour Brexiteer Kate Hoey outlined current border arrangements, including cameras, food standards checks and cross-border work on smuggling.

Describing the issue as ‘ridiculously over-hyped’, she said: ‘All of these things with us leaving the EU are no different, really, [and] can be solved by genuine co-operation and the willingness to make it work.

‘Do you understand why some people perhaps are using this as an issue to make it as difficult as possible?’

Mr Raab replied: ‘There are clearly some in some quarters of the EU who appreciate this is a political pressure point on the UK. And this is a negotiahave Questions: Kate Hoey tion, people apply pressure points and I think you are right about that.’

During the committee hearing, Oliver Robbins, the UK’s permanent secretary of the Department for Exiting the EU, defended the civil service’s expertise after Mrs Hoey asked if anyone in his department ‘actually understands and appreciates’ the Irish border issue.

He said they regularly receive advice from their colleagues in the North, the PSNI and HM Revenue and Customs.

And he told MPs: ‘Ministers had a very detailed and constant set of advice about how to resolve the issues.

‘The secretary of state has said there is a constitutional reality that at the point we leave the European Union, two jurisdictions that were previously governed in common on some things that drive borders in many parts of the world no longer will be.

‘What ministers have said is they want to make sure the outcome of that is not to lead to a return to border infrapolice structure that becomes a political issue and I think we have conveyed our seriousness about that consistently to the EU side.’

Separately, on the House of Commons floor, the Northern Ireland Minister said the UK government will ‘come up with the solution in due course’ to the security implications of a no-deal Brexit.

It followed repeated questions from DUP MP Nigel Dodds, who was frustrated at the lack of action following a warning from the North’s top officer over Brexit planning.

Chief Constable George Hamilton said in June that he feels ‘in the dark’ because of a lack of information, and did not know to who he should send a business case asking for additional resources for border duties after Brexit.

Mr Dodds reacted with annoyance when told by Northern Ireland Minister Shailesh Vara that the Government would be ‘issuing guidance in future’.

He said: ‘With the greatest of respect, we’re not asking about issuing guidance, we’re asking about the allocation of resources.

‘What is he going to do and the government. This has been on their table for many months now.’

Mr Vara responded: ‘I can give an assurance that the secretary of state actually spoke with the chief constable this morning, we’re in regular dialogue and we’re considering the proposals that he has put forward.

‘We are considering the proposals, that’s what I can say and we hope to come up with the solution in due course.’