Boris Johnson, Arlene Foster and other Brexiters dismissed concerns about Irish border out of hand during referendum. The wilful ignorance is breathtaking.
Former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair, who had done so much to bring peace to Northern Ireland, tried to warn about the dangers of Brexit in 2016. But the Leave campaign drowned them out.
Johnson said the situation at the border would be “absolutely unchanged”. When asked how Brexit would affect farmers on the border, he bizarrely promised better-targeted subsidies.
Theresa Villiers, then Northern Ireland secretary, said the border would “remain as free-flowing after a Brexit vote as it is today” and anyone suggesting otherwise was “scaremongering”.
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Foster, the DUP leader who now props up the Tories in Parliament, said it was “disgraceful” to suggest the peace process might be jeopardised.
Meanwhile, Labour Brexiter Kate Hoey wrote: “Last week’s elections in Northern Ireland showed that power-sharing is entrenched and it is an insult to the long suffering communities there to claim otherwise.” Power-sharing broke down in January 2017, and the Northern Ireland executive hasn’t sat since.
Wrong then, wrong now
The Brexiters weren’t just ignorant during the referendum. They have been ignorant since. Sure, Johnson now describes the “backstop” proposal, designed to keep the Irish border open come what may, as a “suicide vest”. And David Davis blames the “unwise decision” last December to agree to such a backstop for the unappetising options now facing Brexit Britain.
But both men were part of the Cabinet which agreed that wording – the first as foreign secretary, the second as Brexit secretary. Were they asleep on the job?
Meanwhile, Davis has slammed the idea of the UK being “trapped in the customs union for the foreseeable future”, to avoid customs (but not regulatory) checks in the Irish Sea. But both Davis and Johnson were still in post when the Cabinet signed off on a similar version of May’s current proposal in June. Didn’t they understand the fine print?
The best that one can say is that the Brexiters were ignorant. Either that – or, despite their current protestations to the contrary, they don’t really care for Northern Ireland.
Edited by Hugo Dixon
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