‘Project fear used to dismiss Brexit’
BORIS Johnson has claimed that so-called “project fear” is being used to keep the United Kingdom in the customs union and to “make a nonsense” of Brexit.
The former British foreign secretary said he believes there is time to resolve the Irish border issue, describing it as “temporary gloom”.
Speaking at the Pendulum Business and Self Empowerment Summit in Dublin yesterday, the Tory MP said that the UK and the Republic of Ireland “should be bold and brave together” over the border issue.
“Whatever you may think about what people voted for, at present the arguments, the whole project fear stuff, is being used to keep the UK in the customs union, in the single market and therefore really to make a nonsense of leaving the EU,” he said.
“We are told we can’t do a deal with our friends over the Channel. If we can’t do a deal with our friends across the Channel then there is a real risk of a hard border in Northern Ireland.”
He joked that there was apparently a risk the UK will run out of drinking water and “two crucial ingredients for Mars bars - sucrose and whey apparently”.
The prominent Tory told the audience: “It’s not the job of politicians to go around moaning of potential shortages of Mars bars. It’s our job to meet those challenges and to mobilise people and to lead.
“It’s not the job of the British government to tell the people they can’t do something. It’s our job to tell them they can do it.”
The former British Cabinet minister said that no-one will accept a hard border between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
He said: “No-one is going to accept it, no-one is going to implement it and we shouldn’t, simply because of these apprehensions, abandon the attempt to find the technical solutions that are readily available – according to the HMRC, according to the Irish authorities – without even trying.
“If there is, as we are told, a tiny risk of a shortage of whey for Mars bars, I say let’s sort it out. Where there is a will there is a way.
“I would have thought, faced with what is a logistical and bureaucratic and technical problem, our two great countries should be bold and brave together.”