DUP: We will not tolerate NI drift from Great Britain after Brexit

The DUP has restated its opposition to any deal which would leave Northern Ireland 'cut adrift from the rest of the UK', amid reports that the EU intends to put fresh proposals on the table for how Brexit should look.
Diane DoddsDiane Dodds
Diane Dodds

In a statement, DUP MEP Diane Dodds said while it remains to be seen what any such plan would look like, she warned it could be “simply intended to dress up existing elements of its plan”.

Her party strongly opposes this for constitutional reasons, saying it “would see Northern Ireland remain tied to EU rules”.

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In July, DUP MP Sammy Wilson said issues around the post-Brexit EU-UK Irish border could be handled “using existing technology and administrative arrangements” (though later that month Theresa May said “no technology solution to address these issues has been designed yet, or implemented anywhere in the world”).

Mrs Dodds said the suggestion that the EU is now mulling the idea of tech-based solutions for the border is a “positive if belated development”.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein issued its own Brexit statement, reiterating its call for the UK to “respect the democratic decision” of the NI public to remain in the EU.

And SDLP MLA Clare Hanna hit out at Boris Johnson in particular, calling his intervention on the issue (in which he warned that the UK is on course for a “spectacular political car crash” over Brexit, and that the EU could effectively “annex” Northern Ireland) was “typically moronic”.