Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has said last week’s Brexit agreement, which was seen as a major step towards avoiding a hard border, could be “torn up tomorrow.”
In a column for the Telegraph, Duncan Smith wrote that the deal is non-binding, and that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreement.” It has also been reported that Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to say something similar in the House of Commons today.
The Telegraph reported that May will tell her parliament today that all of the provisions included in the deal, including the economic conditions that allow for there to be an invisible border between the Republic and the North, are “contingent” on the finalisation of a trade deal.
It was a sentiment echoed by Tory MP David Davis, who is serving as Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. Speaking on the Andrew Marr show, Davis said that the deal was “more a statement of intent rather than a legally enforceable thing.”
His comments drew ire from Dublin, with government Chief Whip telling RTÉ that “This, as far as we’re concerned, is a binding agreement, an agreement in principle.”
McHugh refuted the idea that the British would treat the agreement as anything other than legally binding.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
