Boris backs plans for £15bn bridge between Britain and N Ireland
PLANS for a £15billion bridge between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland are being backed by Boris Johnson, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
The Foreign Secretary said that a mooted 14-mile link across the Irish Sea – already been backed by the Democratic Unionist Party – should be looked at “seriously” by the Government.
It comes after Mr Johnson said he wanted to see a bridge across the English Channel in February to unite France and England over water.
A source close to Mr Johnson told The Telegraph: “Boris thinks this is an interesting idea that should be looked at more seriously – as politicians in both Scotland and Northern Ireland have already said. It’s the kind of ambitious project we need to make a success of global Britain.”
Mr Johnson retweeted an article that set out the positive case for the bridge by George Trefgarne, a former Telegraph journalist.
The DUP, which is supporting the minority Tory government, demanded
‘Boris thinks this is an interesting idea that should be looked at more seriously’
a feasibility study into building a bridge or tunnel in its manifesto for the 2015 general election but it did not feature in its manifesto last year.
The bridge, which has been backed by Alan Dunlop, an academic from Liverpool University, would run from Portpatrick on the west coast of Scotland to Larne or Bangor in Northern Ireland.
Mr Trefgarne, now a PR consultant, said it “would kick-start economic growth, enthuse the DUP, support the Union, bring the country together and create a stability to Brexit, which not even the EU could knock-off balance.”
The £15billion price tag was only a tenth of the estimated cost of a bridge across the English Channel, he said.
Mr Trefgarne said: “Perhaps the biggest obstacle, though, is psychological. Too many people have been reduced to jelly by the prospect of Brexit.
“Ironically, a big bold project like this would be the perfect cure. It is a cause the Government should take up.”
Earlier this year, Sammy Wilson, the DUP’S Brexit spokesman, said the link would “have a major positive impact on both countries economically.”