Patten in warning over Irish border

TORY FORMER Cabinet Minister Lord Chris Patten has said he does not want Northern Ireland to go back to the days of “shooting and maiming” as he urged the Government to be “very careful” over how Brexit impacts on the border.

The ex-EU commissioner made the call as he delivered a scathing assessment of how withdrawal will hit Britain if it leaves the customs union.

Lord Patten, who chaired a commission into policing in Northern Ireland as part of the peace process, said: “I feel emotionally very strongly about this.

“I think we did a really good job on the Good Friday Agreement. And I don’t want to go back to the days when people were being shot and maimed. There is a simple answer to the Northern Ireland border question and to much else besides. Let’s stay in the customs union.”

In his speech, Lord Patten claimed that, for most Brexiteers, “the national interest has long since been subsumed in ideology”. He said: “Again, and again, they get coshed by reality. The question of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is a major example.

“A couple of days before the referendum Mrs May noted that if Britain had a different regulatory environment from the EU, and if Britain rejected free movement, there would have to be a border.

“The trouble is that once in No. 10, the Prime Minister announced that since we were leaving the EU, we also had to leave the single market and the customs union. That is plainly not true.”