Rees-Mogg ‘ill informed’ on Irish border

Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney hit out at the chairman of the hard-line European Research Group after his comments surfaced in a video posted on Twitter.

In the clip, Mr Rees-Mogg says that the UK could continue with ‘historic arrangements’ to avoid a loophole that would allow people to get into the UK.

He continues: ‘There would be our ability, as we had during the Troubles, to have people inspected.

‘It’s not a border that everyone has to go through every day. But of course for security reasons during the Troubles, we kept a very close eye on the border to try and stop gun-running and things like that.’

Both the government and the EU have ruled out a hard border – which would contravene the Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of fighting in Northern Ireland.

Coveney highlighted the clip on Twitter, saying: ‘It’s hard to believe that a senior politician is so ill informed about Ireland + the politics of the £Brexit Irish border issue that he could make comments like these.

‘We have left ‘the Troubles’ behind us, through the sincere efforts of many, + we intend on keeping it that way.’

Fears of a return to violence have been raised if the Good Friday Agreement is damaged by the imposition of a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

The EU’s suggested solution to the problem – a common regulatory area for goods and customs with the rest of the EU – has so far been rejected by the UK as ‘annexing’ Northern Ireland.

Theresa May has been adamant that such a move creating a border down the Irish Sea would be unacceptable to the government.

In return, May’s suggested solution, a complex customs arrangement that would see the UK collect duties for the EU, has been dismissed by Brussels.