We won’t solve your trade border problems, Dublin warns Britain

TENSIONS between Britain and Ireland intensified last night as Dublin warned it would not ‘design a border for the Brexiteers’.

In a strongly worded statement, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar blamed Britain for creating a situation that may require an ‘economic border’ with Northern Ireland to be put in place.

Speaking in Dublin, Mr Varadkar rejected suggestions that technological solutions such as the tagging of goods and vehicles and computerised customs declarations might allow a so-called ‘soft border’ to continue.

He is reported to be pushing for any new customs border to be placed between Northern Ireland and the UK.

The plan, which would make the Irish Sea the effective border between the two countries, would allow unfettered trade and travel between north and south to continue after Brexit. It was rejected out of hand by ministers and their governing allies in the Democratic Unionist Party yesterday.

But Mr Varadkar indicated he would not back down, telling reporters: ‘It’s the United Kingdom, it’s Britain that has decided to leave and if they want to put forward smart solutions, technological solutions for borders of the future and all of that, that’s up to them.

‘What we are not going to do is design a border for the Brexiteers.

‘They are the ones who want a border, it is up to them to say what it is, to say how it would work and to convince their own people, their own voters, that this is a good idea.

‘As far as this government is concerned there shouldn’t be an economic border. We don’t want one.’

Mr Varadkar’s plan would effectively impose a new border between Ulster and the rest of the UK. Chancellor Philip Hammond said the UK, Ireland and EU shared an ambition to avoid the reinstatement of ‘any kind of hard border’.

The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic is one of the key issues that needs to be resolved by the UK and the EU before talks begin on a new trade deal.