English police could patrol Northern Ireland border Britain
Ministers have drawn up detailed plans to deploy police officers from English forces to Northern Ireland in the event of a no-deal.
In high-risk or emergency situations, police can be sent to other parts of the UK in a procedure known as mutual aid, previously used during the London riots and the G8 summit in Fermanagh.
Under contingency plans, around 300 Scottish police would be deployed to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) as a preliminary step.
However, if civil unrest or sectarian violence spirals, officers from forces including London’s Metropolitan police could be called on.
According to those briefed on the plans, Kent will place the greatest demand on police resources in Britain as the country’s main gateway to Europe and a ‘‘chokepoint’’ for goods and people.
But officers are on standby to be sent to Northern Ireland. The province has seen a spate in dissident activity over the last six months. Last week, a bomb exploded in Fermanagh.
A source at London’s City Hall said: ‘‘All the police forces have agreed to give support to Northern Ireland. It is a concern. Thankfully it wouldn’t affect too many London officers, but we would be there. Imagine it: officers from the mainland in Northern Ireland. Bloody hell.’’
It is understood the officers could be deployed along the border, but that their main duty would be to quell civil unrest elsewhere.
Yesterday Simon Byrne, the PSNI chief constable, cautioned against any activity that would ‘‘re-emphasise’’ a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, he said: ‘‘Dissident republican groupings recognise they may be able to exploit the EU exit. ‘‘So if there were anything that re-emphasises the border, they will seek to exploit that and recruit more people and be seen as taking on the British government.’’
He said that since 2017 the PSNI and MI5 had jointly foiled 10 terrorist attacks involving dissidents. The threat level has been ‘‘severe’’ for a decade, meaning an attack is ‘‘highly possible’’. ‘‘I think we are worried in the short term a hard EU exit will create a vacuum which becomes a rally call and a recruiting ground for dissident republicans,’’ he added.
His intervention came as a Scottish police representative warned that the deployment of officers to the province would put them at immediate risk. Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said: ‘‘The simple reality is that our officers are not armed when they go to Northern Ireland and are not trained to the same level of terrorism awareness as officers there.
‘‘They are less able to identify threats as immediately as those officers in the theatre as they don’t have the same training in counterterrorism activity.’’
– Sunday Times