EU is ‘risking trouble over border deal’
We won’t budge on North, says Raab
THE European Union risks fuelling a separatist movement in Ireland by refusing a deal on the Irish border, claims Britain’s Brexit Secretary.
Dominic Raab said the EU’s firm position is forcing the Irish Government into a hard border – playing right into the hands of anti-agreement nationalists.
In some of his toughest anti-EU statements yet, Mr Raab denounced the ‘melodrama’ over an EU summit last week in which European leaders rejected Britain’s Brexit proposals and said it is forcing the Irish and British governments to accept a hard border – itself a rallying call for republican separatists.
‘Ireland has been clear that it does not want added infrastructure on the border. I find it very difficult to believe that in the spirit of European unity, given all the other separatist pressures across the continent, that the EU would insist on Ireland doing that,’ he said. Mr Raab was referring to the Catalan separatist movement and said it may become to Northern Ireland if a deal is not reached.
He also denounced the EU’s ‘dogmatic rebuff’ of Britain’s Brexit proposals at the EU summit in Austria last week.
On the Andrew Marr Show on BBC1 yesterday, Mr Raab warned that anti-elitism movements are cropping up across Europe. He said the EU was not listening and has a habit of sending the public ‘back to the drawing board’ if the ‘European elite don’t like the answer’.
He also rejected the French President’s claim last week that British Brexiteers are ‘liars’. ‘It not the language of statesmanship or friendship. If he wants to point out something I said that is a lie, go ahead and do so. One thing I will say is that EU has a habit of spurning democratic votes whether in this country or, to some degree, they are trying to do it in rest of EU,’ he said.
Britain would not be ‘flitting’ from one plan to another like some kind of ‘diplomatic butterfly’, he said, adding that any deal allowing Northern Ireland to stay by itself in the customs union was out of the question.
Mr Raab said: ‘People need to read the small print, not just of our proposals, but the EU’s proposals. Because what they’re suggesting is not just free trade but for Northern Ireland specifically to stay locked into the customs union.’ He said Britain would never allow Northern Ireland to be in a different ‘economic machine’.
It comes as Tory Brexit hardliners are today to outline their own Brexit proposals, in which they will insist on a trade agreement, similar to Canada’s with the EU.
Mr Raab insisted the British Government would keep negotiating on the basis of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Chequers blueprint for Brexit, despite the rebuff from EU leaders last week in Salzburg.
Earlier Mrs May urged warring members of her own party to unite to stop the opposition parties derailing Brexit.
British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn yesterday indicated for the first time he would support a second referendum if his party’s conference meeting in Liverpool called for one.
‘Habit of spurning democratic votes’