May looks to Canada and US for border answers
Plan mocked for ignoring frontier’s armed guards
PRIME MINISTER Theresa May has indicated she is looking at the customs arrangements between the US and Canada as a way of solving the Irish border issue created by Brexit.
But Mrs May, who has insisted she remains committed to avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, was mocked over the comparison – with one MP telling her the US-Canada frontier has armed guards.
The issue of the border is one of the most complex problems to be resolved in the Brexit process and Mrs May said the Government was examining examples from around the world.
Updating MPs following her Mansion House speech on Brexit, Mrs May said: “There are many examples of different arrangements for customs around the rest of the world. Indeed we are looking at those, including for example the border between the United States and Canada.”
Brexit Secretary David Davis has previously highlighted the operation of the frontier near the Ford plant in Detroit as an example of how cross-border trade can operate smoothly.
But when it was later pointed out to the Prime Minister by Shadow Brexit Minister Jenny Chapman that there were “armed customs guards” at the US-Canada border, Mrs May said the Government was looking at arrangements “in a number of countries”.
Labour MP Chris Leslie, a supporter of the pro-EU Open Britain group, said: “The Government has repeatedly ruled out any return to a hard border on the island of Ireland, as well as any new physical infrastructure at the border.
“But anyone who’s visited the US-Canada border will know that it’s a very hard border indeed, with customs checks, barriers and armed guards. Leave campaigners told us there’d be ‘no change’ to the border if we voted to leave the EU. That promise is looking less deliverable by the day.”
In the Commons, Mrs May received support from Tories on both sides of the Brexit divide, significantly including potential rebels who could inflict defeat on the Government over the plans to leave the EU’s customs union.
Leading rebel Anna Soubry said no one could doubt Mrs May’s “determination” to get the “very best deal for our country in these most difficult of negotiations” but warned there would be “considerable administrative costs”.
Among the prominent Brexit-backers, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith urged the Prime Minister to send a message to Brussels: “When she gets into negotiations with her European counterparts about trade arrangements, could she remind them that cake exists to be eaten and cherries exist to be picked?”
Meanwhile, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar ruled out formal three-way talks between the UK, Ireland and the EU to look at Mrs May’s Brexit offer.
Updating MPs on her plans, Mrs May said the UK and Irish governments and the European Commission “will be working together” to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
But Mr Varadkar said it was not in Ireland’s interests to take part in formal three-way talks regarding the wider Brexit issues, and that what was needed was for Downing Street to produce more detailed proposals.
Mrs May again told MPs there would be no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. She has rejected Brussels proposals that would see Northern Ireland kept in an effective customs union with the EU as a fallback in case other solutions cannot be found.
“As Prime Minister I am not going to let our departure from the EU do anything to set back the historic progress made in Northern Ireland,” she said. “Nor will I allow anything that would damage the integrity of our precious union.
“The UK and Irish governments and the European Commission will be working together to ensure that we fulfil these commitments.”
I am not going to let our departure set back progress in Ireland. Prime Minister Theresa May.