No special Brexit deal for the North – Foster
DUP leader Arlene Foster last night ruled out a special Brexit arrangement f or Northern Ireland.
Ms Foster said the North ‘will exit the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom’.
‘We will not countenance a border in the Irish Sea,’ she added. ‘The GB market is not only critical for Northern Ireland but for the Republic of Ireland. We want to see a sensible arrangement that can work for all concerned. The democratic wishes of the British people must be implemented.’
Ms Foster said that ‘those in Dublin and Brussels, recklessly trying to use Northern Ireland for their own objectives, should cease’.
‘The Prime Minister [Theresa May] should warn Brussels that Northern Ireland must not be used as blackmail,’ she added.
Ms Foster’s comments come amid calls from senior EU figures and the Government here for bespoke customs arrangements for Northern Ireland when the UK leaves the EU in 2019, to enable the freeflow of goods across the border.
Meanwhile, Britain has reportedly offered to double its Brexit divorce bill from £20billion to £40billion in return for a promise from the rest of the EU to move on to trade talks, prompting fears that Irish concerns could be swept to one side in the process.
Theresa May’s Brexit ‘war cabinet’ yesterday agreed to offer billions more in EU divorce payments in return for a free trade deal and an agreement to move towards trade talks in December, according to reports in the UK media.
Just days ago Taoiseach Leo Varadkar threatened to stall a move to the next phase of talks until the UK government had confirmed there will be no return to a hard border with the North, saying: ‘ What we want to take off the table, before we even talk about trade, is any idea that there would be a hard border, a physical border, or a border resembling the past... Then we’d be happy to move on to phase two.’
But with the British government prepared to double its original divorce bill, fears were growing last night that Ireland’s interests could be forgotten.
UK Brexit minister David Davis claimed on Friday that many EU countries are already keen to move on to the next phase of talks. And last night, Sky News reported that, following a tense two-hour meeting of senior ministers in 10 Downing Street, Mrs May is now prepared to offer £40billion later this week if the rest of the EU is ready to move towards trade talks in December.
The UK will also reportedly allow a role for the European Court of Justice after Brexit.
EU leaders are due to decide at a summit on December 14 and 15 whether to allow talks on a future trade relationship to begin.
Britain ‘to double divorce bill’