Border Expert Explains "Enormously Technical" Switzerland Solution To Backstop

25 August 2019, 16:55

Border expert Tony Smith explains how the "enormously technical" Switzerland border could help implement existing technical solutions to the backstop.

An expert who believes a technical solution to the Irish backstop already exists told Nigel Farage how ideas from the Switzerland border and others around the world will help prevent a hard border on Ireland in the case of no-deal Brexit.

Tony Smith, a former head of Border Force UK and a current member of the Expert Panel Advising the Alternative Arrangements said whilst the Switzerland border was "enormously technical", ideas can be taken and combined with existing technical solutions to make a frictionless border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

"There isn't one simple example you can lift, but the Irish border is unique," he said, adding: "There are definitely examples of other borders that if you mix those up and add those to the technology and some of our proposals for exemptions, then you've got a comprehensive package that could do what we want and avoid the backstop, avoid checks on the frontier, and get through the no-deal scenario."

Watch above.