Arlene issues fresh warning to May on border in Irish Sea
Reports of ‘breakthrough’ on key Brexit issue
ARLENE Foster has again warned Theresa May against agreeing a Brexit deal that separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, amid reports a breakthrough has been found that could end the border impasse.
Reports yesterday suggested EU officials are considering a ‘dual certification’ system that would allow goods produced in the North to circulate freely in both the EU and UK markets.
Another proposal would suggest goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland be checked at Dublin Port for EU customs and regulatory compliance before continuing on northwards, RTÉ have reported.
Such a system could have huge economic benefits for the North, but speaking at the end of a three-day visit to Brussels yesterday, DUP leader Arlene Foster warned the British Prime Minister she could not ‘in good conscience’ recommend such a deal while honouring her commitments to the DUP. The Prime Minister is a unionist. Many of her cabinet colleagues have assured me of their unionism,’ Mrs Foster said yesterday.
‘Therefore, they could not in good conscience recommend a deal which places a trade barrier on United Kingdom businesses moving goods from one part of the Kingdom to another.’
The DUP’s Westminster MPs have threatened to vote against Mrs May in the upcoming budget if they do not get their way on Brexit, which could spark a UK general election.
Speaking on Thursday afternoon, Mrs Foster said: ‘These are significant days for Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom as we know it.’
She said the EU plan for checks on goods was ‘a oneway turnstile, which could restrict trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.’
Far from being the best of both worlds, the EU plan ‘is the worst of one world’, Mrs Foster said.
Asked if she was concerned about the DUP’s threats to withdraw their support, Mrs May responded only by noting that ‘the DUP will do what the DUP will do’.
But Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald yesterday accused the DUP of obstructing a reasonable solution to the backstop for avoiding a hard border in Ireland.
The backstop realistically needs to be sown up at next week’s European Council meeting in Brussels if a catastrophic no-deal exit is to be avoided.
Speaking to reporters, Ms McDonald said: ‘They are obstructing the very thing that would protect the rights, the entitlements and the livelihoods of people right across the island and in the North in particular.
‘They’re pursuing the strategy that will damage the interests of the very people they represent. I find it to be a reckless position to adopt.
‘But what’s more reckless is that Theresa May has failed to face down the DUP to ensure that we have the institutions of Government reestablished in the North.’
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has insisted that ministers would not sign up to any plan that compromised the territorial integrity of the UK by imposing a ‘border in the Irish Sea’, which the DUP and many of May’s cabinet believe it does.
Some believe Mrs May will try to sell the proposals to her cabinet by convincing the EU to put a time limit on the backstop, so the UK is not tied to EU rules indefinitely.
Brussels is not keen on the idea, and Ms McDonald insisted it could not happen.
‘Failed to face down the DUP’