A cheerful warning to start your morning.
One United Kingdom cabinet minister, speaking anonymously to The Sun, has said that a no deal Brexit would hit Ireland harder than anyone else.
In the quotes, it appears that the cabinet minister is trying to justify the UK government’s logic that the EU will renegotiate the backstop — despite the EU’s countless protests to the contrary.
“The EU will give us a better deal, because if they don’t Ireland is fucked. No deal will destroy it. No deal hurts us, the EU and Ireland – but it hurts Ireland the most,” the cabinet minister said.
“A lot of Irish trade goes to Britain, and much of the rest comes through us to Europe.”
A no deal Brexit is expected to cost Ireland approximately 100,000 jobs over the next 10 years, as well as causing a slowdown in economic growth, according to the Central Bank.
Beyond economics, Ireland will also be the centre of great confusion at the border, where checks will need to be put in place between north and south.
However, days ago, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker had warned that Britain would be the “big loser” in a no-deal scenario. Speaking to an Austrian newspaper, Juncker said: “If it comes to a hard Brexit, this is in no one’s interest, but the British would be the big losers. They pretend it’s not like that, but it will be.”
“We are fully prepared even though some in Britain say we are not well set up for a ‘no deal’. But I am not taking part in these little summer games,” he added.
If an agreement cannot be struck, Britain will leave the EU without any deal on 31 October. On the bright side, it’s not the worst thing that one of Johnson’s cabinet ministers has said about Ireland.
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