Fish and quip as Labour leader crosses into the Republic

JEREMY Corbyn joked fish recognised no borders during his fleeting visit yesterday.

The Labour leader also expressed concern about protecting environmental standards after Brexit while standing on a bridge over the River Foyle for photographs and selfies. Hauliers sounded their horns and were rewarded with a wave as Mr Corbyn crossed the wide waterway which will form part of the UK’S border with the EU after Brexit.

Tensions have already been raised in the north-west over competing territorial claims between Ireland and Britain to Lough Foyle’s oyster-rich waters, a number of miles north where the river widens to meet the Atlantic.

The Labour leader was joined by Ulster University professor Deirdre Heenan as he walked the few metres across the busy span from Strabane in Co Tyrone into Lifford in Donegal and posed for photos.

During a breakfast meeting with representatives from the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, the Labour leader referenced the civil rights marches, 50 years ago this year, which suffered into violence in a city which would be gripped by decades of bloodshed.

Before a strongly anti-brexit audience, Mr Corbyn said he understood the anger which drove some in Labour constituencies to vote for separation and reiterated he would not attempt to prevent it, rather to ameliorate or soften it.

Mr Corbyn later travelled to Harland and Wolff shipyard in East Belfast.