Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
NORTHERN IRELAND NEEDS TO SPEAK UP ON BREXIT
Corbyn’s message for our MLAS
NORTHERN Ireland needs a voice at the Brexit talks table, Jeremy Corbyn said yesterday.
The Labour leader visited a border bridge as part of his two-day tour of the country.
The 300-mile frontier is one of the most complex issues facing negotiators in Brussels but Northern Ireland has no ministers to intervene since devolved government at Stormont collapsed more than a year ago.
Mr Corbyn, addressing a meeting of business leaders in Derry, said: “Please, to the parties in Stormont, you have to come together to re-form a government there.
“It is impossible to go through a period so crucial as Brexit negotiations without a voice for Northern Ireland being made at the table by the political classes in Northern Ireland.
“I hope they understand that message and I hope we can make very rapid progress on that.
“There is to be a transition period but the transition period is not unlimited, that we well know, and crucial decisions are going to be made in the next three months and I understand very clearly the message that you have given me here this morning.”
A backstop border option, if no other deal is reached with the EU, would see Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK follow Brussels regulations to protect frictionless all-island trade.
The Government has said it is focused on securing a customs deal which would avoid the need for such a backstop and has ruled out anything which would create a regulatory difference between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
Mr Corbyn walked the Lifford bridge between Northern Ireland and the Republic, close to the Co Tyrone town of Strabane, and took selfies with passers-by.
The Opposition leader added: “Any kind of border, physical border, virtual reality border, technological border, whatever, would be very damaging to the economy.”
He said a hard frontier would seriously damage the north-west, including the life chances of those already suffering from excessive unemployment, and claimed the Government was making a mess of the negotiations and was too divided and weak to get a good Brexit deal.
Northern Ireland’s rudderless public services were thrown into sharp relief recently when a Civil Service decision to approve a major incinerator project in the continued absence of power-sharing ministers was overturned by a court.
Mr Corbyn added: “It is unconscionable you have civil servants making major decisions, then challenged by the courts, with elected politicians having no say whatsoever.”
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