UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected on Tuesday claims that a Brexit blueprint he is going to present in the next few days to Brussels effectively envisioned a hard border on the island of Ireland, while noting that there would need to be customs checks in the region after Britain left the European Union
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st October, 2019) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson rejected on Tuesday claims that a Brexit blueprint he is going to present in the next few days to Brussels effectively envisioned a hard border on the island of Ireland, while noting that there would need to be customs checks in the region after Britain left the European Union.On Monday, media reported that the formal text of the new Brexit plan, including an alternative to the Irish backstop, will be delivered to Brussels after the prime minister addresses his Conservative Party at the conference in Manchester on Wednesday. Irish media, meanwhile, claimed that the plan would de facto mean a hard border, with a string of customs posts installed five or 10 miles back.
"Absolutely not. No. There are very good reasons why that would not be a good idea ... both for practical reasons and reasons of sentiment that we totally understand," Johnson told the BBC, while commenting on claims about a hard border.
He, however, stressed that customs border checks would be a "reality" after Brexit to preserve a "single customs territory" for the United Kingdom.
"A sovereign united country must have a single customs territory," he argued.
According to Johnson, there are a "plenty of ways" the Irish border issue could be addressed, but declined to go into greater detail until the plan has been officially presented to the bloc.
Commenting on Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney's criticism of London's non-paper on Brexit as a "non-starter," the UK prime minister said that "they are talking about some stuff that went in previously," rather than his fresh proposals.
Brexit has been postponed several times amid the country's failure to internally negotiate the withdrawal terms. The main thorny issue around the withdrawal agreement agreed by former Prime Minister Theresa May is the Irish backstop, which stipulates that the United Kingdom will remain in the EU Customs Union, with Northern Ireland complying with some of EU Single Market rules, in case no comprehensive agreement is reached by the agreed time after the country's withdrawal.
