LONDON: Boris Johnson has been accused of breaking his word over his commitment to protect the union between Great Britain and Northern Ireland by the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.
As the Prime Minister faced fresh questions over trade within the UK after Brexit, Arlene Foster said Government officials had told her there would need to be checks.
Asked on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about the sense of some in the unionist community that Johnson’s deal was a “betrayal”, she said: “I think it is right for the leadership of unionism in Northern Ireland to try to work with the prime minister of the day to get the best deal for Northern Ireland.
“We will always do that. We will continue to do that. I think it says more about the person who broke their word than me and the leadership of the... Democratic Unionist Party.”She said the DUP had been told by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officials before the PM announced his deal that there would be checks between the mainland and Northern Ireland.
Foster said a lack of free-flowing trade would cause “economic instability in Northern Ireland, which will lead to higher costs for retailers which will lead to less choice for our consumers in Northern Ireland”.
“And all of that leads me to say that we need to — after this election is over, and I’m not prejudging the election in any one way, every vote will count — but what is important is that we have a strong team of DUP MPs back in Westminster to speak up for Northern Ireland.”
Foster has kept a low profile in the election campaign thus far, and her intervention will be seen by some as an attempt to highlight a need for the DUP’s role in holding sway in the event of a hung parliament.
Her comments came after Labour released a leaked Treasury report last week that concluded customs checks and possibly even tariffs could be required on goods travelling in both directions between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. But Johnson told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme over the weekend that the report was “wrong” and added that the six counties would have “unfettered access” to the UK market.
With just a few days to gountil polls open, the PM is embarking on a blitz of Labour’s heartlands in a bid to convince Leave voters that Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit position is akin to a “great betrayal”, and will say there are just “three days to get Brexit done”.He has consistently vowed to take the UK out of the EU by January 31 and then finalise a trade deal with Brussels within 11 months to meet the transition period deadline.