Stanley Johnson says ‘Irish will shoot each other if they want to’ during debate on Brexit border stalemate ‘Look if the Irish want to shoot each other, they will shoot each other whether there’s a hard border or whether there is a soft border’

Stanley Johnson has said the Irish would shoot each other “if they want to” irrespective of the status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit.

The former European parliamentarian and father to Tory Brexiteer Boris Johnson told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that the border issue has become ‘intolerable.’

He said former PM Margaret Thatcher would have resolved the issue by taking a hard line to the threat of violence if a hard border separated the two countries.

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What would Thatcher do?

He said: “[Thatcher] would have said it’s quite intolerable that this whole question of the Northern Ireland border has come to dominate the decision over the future of our country.

“She would have said ‘look if the Irish want to shoot each other they will shoot each other whether there’s a hard border or whether there is a soft border, that is something the Irish will do if they want to’.”

“Mrs Thatcher would not have had any truck with this scheme by the EU to elevate the border question into a way of making sure we stay in the EU.”

Condemnation

Around 3,500 people died during decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, with border checkpoints frequently coming under attack by paramilitary groups.

Johnson’s comments were condemned by many Twitter users.

@GMB Disgusting remarks from Stanley Johnson this morning about the Irish killing each other. Very disappointed. — Jason (@CrimsonSnow_) October 16, 2018

@piersmorgan @GMB as a irish person living in the north of Ireland I must say that was deplorable commentary from Stanley Johnson “let the Irish shoot each other” horrific and worse you skimmed over it like it was no big deal — Tony sheehan (@tonysheeks) October 16, 2018

.@GMB .@piersmorgan showed more outrage about a fucking papoose than Stanley Johnson’s comment about Irish and Northern Irish people. That comment is not acceptable. Disgusting comment that wasn’t even questioned or rightly condemned. — John (@OhRiagain) October 16, 2018

Border issue

Theresa May is battling to find a compromise to the Irish border issue that is threatening to derail talks at a late stage.

One of the primary issues she is trying to manage is her tenuous coalition with Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) whose ten MPs allow her to form a slim majority.

The DUP are vehemently opposed to any divergence between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

On Monday night, the DUP’s Westminister leader warned his party were prepared to torpedo the PM’s domestic agenda if she bowed to the EU’s demands for Northern Ireland to remain in within the EU’s orbit after Brexit.

Nigel Dodds told the BBC’s Newsnight programme: “There’s a lot of things that we can not support in terms of the Government’s domestic and financial, welfare and other legislation, which does not trigger the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn getting into Number 10.”

Dodds warned: “If there was a suggestion that the union, our precious union as our prime minister described it, would be broken up or fracture in any way by the Conservative Party, then clearly we would have to say ‘how can we continue to implement your domestic agenda and everything else.’

“Of course, we wouldn’t push for a general election but there comes a point where you have to say enough is enough.”