Europe’s pipsqueak puppet

The pipsqueak Irish premier Leo Varadkar seems to take a perverse delight in provoking Theresa May, creating difficulties over the border question as a ruse for helping Brussels thwart Brexit.

he’s even urged Sinn Fein to take up their seven seats at Westminster to cause more trouble for the Government.

Perhaps Varadkar has forgotten that eight years ago Britain gave Dublin a £3.2billion loan to help bail out the Irish economy — money we had to borrow. It still hasn’t been repaid in full. In addition, RBS and Lloyds bunged around £16billion into rescuing their Irish subsidiaries, writing off debts they’d run up recklessly lending to property speculators and households during the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ boom years.

That, too, came from British taxpayers, as part of the bank bailout package. In all, Britain committed something like £20billion to saving the Irish economy. Although Dublin pays interest on the £3.2 billion direct loan from Westminster, much of the dosh will never be recovered.

Varadkar also needs reminding that Britain is Ireland’s second biggest export market. Our economies are closely linked, which is why we lent them the money in the first place. Problems over the border have been deliberately manufactured by Brussels. So why is Varadkar acting as the eU’s puppet?

Ireland needs a smooth, amicable post-Brexit trade deal as much as the United Kingdom. It’s time Varadkar got back in his box and stopped playing silly beggars.