SINN FEIN BLAST MAY BREXIT PLAN

Party claims proposals will ’harden border and hit rights in North’

THERESA May’s soft Brexit proposals will still lead to a hardening of the border and a reduction of rights in the North, Sinn Fein claimed yesterday.

After marathon discussions at Chequers, British PM Theresa May managed to secure the agreement of her top ministers to proposals setting out the UK’S future relationship with the European Union.

The plans, which still have to be assessed by the 27 other nations of the EU, would result in the creation of a UK-EU free trade area for goods, with a “common rulebook”.

And a new “facilitated customs arrangement” would remove the for checks and controls. Sinn Fein’s Brexit spokesman said Mrs May’s forthcoming white paper shows movement but still needs to deal with the issues regarding the island of Ireland.

David Cullinane added: “There is no such thing as partial membership of the single market and a frictionless bespoke border.

“Such a set-up is a trade agreement – and agreements are predicated on hard borders.

“They rely on borders in order to exist. The fact remains that in order to

CONCERN David Cullinane avoid a hardening of the border and to protect the rights of Irish and EU citizens in the North, the island of Ireland must remain in the customs union and single market and remain part of the EU human rights framework.” The Tory agreement said there would be no Irish backstop – a fallback to avoid a hard border – but the UK would still agree to a legally operable one in the Withdrawal Agreement. Downing Street revealed the deal would protect the Good Friday Agreement. The Irish Governneed ment must now seek a special meeting of EU leaders as part of the September 20 summit to finally resolve the backstop issue for the border.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin said: “A facilitated customs arrangement has never been implemented anywhere in the world before and it is unclear how it would work in practice, and if the EU can possibly agree to what the UK is seeking.

“If the UK decides in future not to recognise new EU regulations, on food for example, it would lead to regulatory divergence that would inevitably mean a hardening of the border on our island.”

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