Boris Johnson accuses Remainers of trying to use Irish border issue to stop the UK leaving the EU

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson jogs through the snow near St James Park
British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson jogs through the snow near St James Park Credit: Getty

Boris Johnson has accused Remainers of trying to use the Irish border issue to stop the UK from leaving the European Union as he insisted there will not be a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit. 

The Foreign Secretary suggested that Northern Ireland may have to accept enhanced border checks after Brexit in a letter to the Prime Minister which was leaked on Tuesday night.

Mr Johnson suggested "even if a hard border is reintroduced" in Ireland, it would not significantly affect trade across the UK's land border with the EU, in an apparent reversal of his previously stated position that returning to a hard border was "unthinkable".

But Mr Johnson has now pledged to publish the 18-page letter in full online as he recommitted to ruling out a hard border after Britain’s divorce from Brussels.

He said: “The issue of the Northern Ireland border is being used quite a lot politically to try to keep the UK in the customs union and effectively the single market so we can’t really leave the EU.

Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary Credit: Leon Neal /Getty Images Europe

“That’s what is going on. What the letter says is that actually there are very good solutions that you could put in place that would obviate, that would prevent, any kind of hard border but would allow goods… to move freely without let or hindrance whilst allowing the UK to come out of the customs union, take back control of our tariff schedules, take back control of our commercial policy and take back control of regulations.

“It is a very positive letter.”

Mr Johnson’s defence of the leaked letter came as the EU was due to publish the draft legal text of the withdrawal agreement struck with the UK in December.

The document is expected to include a so-called "backstop" commitment on the border issue, to be used if no other solution can be found, which would keep Northern Ireland in “full regulatory alignment” with the EU post-Brexit.

Such a move would effectively mean keeping Northern Ireland in the customs union which would be unacceptable to the Government and is likely to spark a political firestorm. 

Mr Johnson said there are “all sorts of ways” that technology could be used to avoid a hard border.

When asked by Sky News after his morning run if he envisaged a harder border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit than the one that currently exists, he said: “No. No, that is the whole point.”

Mr Johnson also reiterated his belief, first expressed on Tuesday, that the London Congestion Charge was proof that the border issue can be solved.

He said: “The congestion charge is indeed a mechanism. It is a mechanism. But I don’t know whether you have ever driven into the congestion charge zone from outside the congestion charge zone.

“Have you? Do you slow down? Do you feel any let or hindrance? Do you check your progress? Do you break? Do you?

“What I am saying is there are solutions which we can envisage and we have got to be positive about it.

“We can do this. We can come out of the customs union whilst solving the Northern Ireland border problem.

“We mustn’t allow this great sort of inverted pyramid of objections to be built over this fundamental problem which I think is eminently soluble.”

He added: “I think that the particular problems around the Irish border are being used politically to drive the whole Brexit argument and effectively to try to frustrate Brexit.

“I think there are better ways forward.”

License this content