We’d say we expected more of him, but that wouldn’t be true.
Commenting on a report that the Irish government has been planning alongside its partners in the European Union for the possibility of a no deal, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg laid the blame for Brexit at the feet of the Irish government.
Rees-Mogg, who was part of the Leave campaign, has refused to vote for Theresa May’s withdrawal deal in the House of Commons, and was the ringleader of a failed attempt to oust May through a vote of no confidence in December.
Rees-Mogg further dismissed the Irish border issue, referring to it as a “phantom.”
“If we leave without a deal the main culprit will be the obdurate Irish Government’s threats about the phantom border issue,” he wrote on his official Twitter account on Thursday afternoon.
https://twitter.com/Jacob_Rees_Mogg/status/1080837722208636929
Rees-Mogg is part of a faction in the Conservative Party that argues that the backstop agreement — necessary to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland — is tantamount to the UK remaining in the EU.
Rees-Mogg has spoken up on the issue of Ireland before, exposing his cavalier attitude towards the importance of the border.
“There would be our ability, as we had during The Troubles, to have people inspected. It’s not a border that everyone has to go through every day, but of course, for security reasons, during The Troubles, we kept a very close eye on the border to try and stop gun-running and things like that,” he said.
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