Brexit: Nigel Dodds says hard border claims just scaremongering

To vocal assent from colleagues Gregory Campbell and David Simpson, Nigel Dodds said that even if the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement in just over a month’s time there will be other mechanisms found to keep a soft frontier between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mr Dodds told MPs: “Everybody knows that there’s not going to be any hard border in Ireland and everybody knows – despite what Michel Barnier said – that even in the event of a no deal that operational ways would be found to have no controls and checks.

“So all of this is scaremongering and isn’t going to happen. Anyone who knows anything about Irish politics knows that no Irish government will introduce a hard border on the island of Ireland. That’s the reality of the situation. The fact of the matter is that the prime minister has – as the solicitor general knows – given a commitment to reopen the withdrawal agreement and to seek legally binding changes to the treaty itself.”

Addressing his question to the solicitor general, Robert Buckland, the North Belfast MP added: “Now, yesterday Simon Coveney ruled out legally binding language even outside the withdrawal agreement.

“Does he not accept that some of the rhetoric coming from the Irish government and others is bringing about the very thing that they say they want to avoid – which is the possibility of a no deal.”

Mr Buckland said that Mr Dodds “is absolutely right in his call for everybody to cool it and to calm down when it comes to important issues like the Irish border”.

However, the Tory minister went on to say that he was “not going to make comments about members of friendly governments but what I will say is that this is a time for calm heads rather than hot ones”.

Veteran Conservative Sir Bernard Jenkin thanked Mr Buckland for making it clear that there are “viable alternative arrangements which the government is discussing” over the Irish border.