UK is planning to have customs posts along the Irish border, reports RTE

Ireland’s national broadcaster says it has seen the plan put to the European Union by the UK government.

The posts would be set back five to ten miles from the actual point of the border.

The proposals, if as reported, would suggest that Mr Johnson intends Northern Ireland to be entirely outside the EU customs union.

The plan is said to include a proposal that the goods moving from a “customs clearance site” on the northern side of the border to a similar site on the southern side would be monitored using GPS or tracking devices.

RTE’s northern editor Tommie Gorman, noting that the proposals formed part of a so-called ‘non-paper’ submitted to the EU discussions, dismissed the proposals. He said:

“I think politically it is a non runner because any Irish government that would acquiesce to such proposals, as part of an overall deal, and it would not be able to stop them if they weren’t prepared to acquiesce to them, well I think they would be writing their political death warrant ...”

The proposals, if accepted, he said would establish Ireland as the “source of pain” in the Brexit process, undermine the Good Friday Agreement and insult the people of Northern Ireland.

But Downing Street is said to have insisted that it has no plan for such customs posts.