Letter: The UK should apply import controls on goods coming in across the land border into Northern Ireland

The United Kingdom government plans to step up checks on food imported into Great Britain from the Irish Republic, in part to exclude animal diseases such as African swine fever. But with no checks on goods entering Northern Ireland across the land border the province will in effect be abandoned to share whatever fate may befall the Republic.

If there was a significant risk that animal diseases might get into Northern Ireland from the EU then there would have to be checks on its exports to Great Britain. Maybe this is hypothetical, but much less so than the risk that "chlorinated chickens" might cross the border into the Republic which agitated the Irish government.

Just as Northern Ireland could potentially be used as a back door for unsuitable goods to enter the EU Single Market, it could also be a back door into the Great Britain market. The obvious answer is for the UK to apply import controls on goods coming in across the land border, as well as export controls on goods heading the other way.

Dr DR Cooper, Maidenhead, Berkshire,