Johnson blasted for dodging question on Northern Ireland
Boris Johnson has been branded a “disgrace” after failing to answer questions in the Commons about a leaked letter suggesting a hard border in Northern Ireland remained a possibility.
MPS heckled and jeered the Foreign Secretary, who left the chamber after Prime Minister’s Questions despite an urgent question from Labour on his comments. The ex-london mayor caused controversy after a memo to Prime Minister Theresa May was leaked which suggested the government should focus on preventing the frontier becoming “significantly” harder.
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry, who secured the question, described his absence as a “huge discourtesy”.
She said: “It is an absolute disgrace and a huge discourtesy to this House that the Foreign Secretary is not here himself to answer the questions of his memo.
“What is he afraid of? Perhaps it’s this, these questions go to the very heart of his credibility and the credibility of previous statements that’s he’s made in this House.”
Ms Thornberry went on to quote statements Mr Johnson had made from 2016 to the last few weeks in which he had said the border arrangements in Northern Ireland would remain “absolutely unchanged”.
She added: “Contrary to the Foreign Secretary’s previous statements, he accepts that there will have to be changes to the current border arrangements, he accepts that there will need to be border controls that do not exist at present.
“The only debate is the degree of hardness, but surely the Foreign Secretary has learned by now that you can’t just be a little bit pregnant, either there is a border or there is not.”
Cabinet Office minister David Lidington, who responded on behalf of the government, told MPS that as he had Cabinet responsibility for constitutional affairs it was “perfectly reasonable” he responded rather than the Foreign Secretary.
He added: “She asked about the position of the Foreign Secretary, he like every other member of the Cabinet stands foursquare behind our support for the Belfast Agreement and for the December agreement.”