Why Johnson And Hunt's "Technology" Solution Won't Work On Irish Border

3 July 2019, 08:54

A former Northern Ireland Minister told LBC why Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt's promise of using "technology" to sort out the Irish border simply won't work.

Lord Hain explained why simply using number plate trackers will not protect the UK's border in Northern Ireland.

Speaking to Nick Ferrari, he said: "A future Prime Minister has to be a supporter of the peace process in Northern Ireland and a close friend of Dublin, a friendship which has been built up carefully in a systematic way for the last 20 years or so.

"It seems these two candidates are just willing to brush the concerns of Dublin and the Irish Republic aside.

"This 'technology stuff'. No amount of fantasy technology - which doesn't exist at the moment despite the protestations of Jeremy Hunt - can actually overcome the fact that unless there are common regulatory and customs arrangements on both sides of the border, you can't have an open border.

"Unless you have the same regulations covering, for example, health and safety standards on food or on manufactured equipment, then the fact that you have a camera checking a barcode on a passing lorry doesn't alter the fact that in that lorry could be something that doesn't comply with the Republic of Ireland's Heath and Safety regulations for example, which are European Union health and safety regulations.

"This technology stuff is a complete fantasy.

"If we have a no-deal Brexit, which will be catastrophic, there will be a hard border under World Trade Organisation rules as a matter of international law.

"Neither Boris Johnson nor Jeremy Hunt faced up to that fact."