A UKIP MEP has suggested that the UK threaten to revoke their common travel area with Ireland over the Irish government’s stance on Brexit.
Ireland’s position has remained consistent since the beginning of Brexit talks — that negotiations cannot progress past their first stage until a satisfactory solution is found to the issue of the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
For whatever reason, pundits and politicians in Great Britain have only actually started paying attention to that stance in the last few weeks, and they are not happy.
Yesterday, UKIP MEP Gerard Batten wrote on Twitter “UK threatened by Ireland. A tiny country that relies on UK for its existence. We should advise, we are free to revoke common travel area.”
When it was put to him that Ireland were able to hold such a strong stance on negotiation thanks to their membership of the EU, Batten simply said “Ireland is like the weakest kid in the playground sucking up to the EU bullies.”
https://twitter.com/GerardBattenMEP/status/934821820859068417
https://twitter.com/GerardBattenMEP/status/934920090285428742
When he was informed that Ireland is simply seeking to protect its own interests, he ignored that too, saying “Ireland is nothing but a subservient client state of EU.”
https://twitter.com/GerardBattenMEP/status/934919135561166848
Ray Finch, the MEP who is head of the UKIP group in the European Parliament, has since said that Batten’s remarks “do not reflect UKIP policy or sentiment.”
In a statement, Finch laid the blame for any hard border squarely at the feet of the EU, saying “All political parties, North and South, in Ireland and in Britain wish to continue free movement and Free trade within and between these islands. The only people looking to impose a hard border are the European Commission.”
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