A still from the video where Jacob Rees-Mogg suggests that after Brexit, people crossing the Irish border should be subject to ‘inspections, just like during The Troubles’

The DUP has reiterated that it will not support checkpoints on the border after arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested people crossing the frontier could be “inspected” as they had been during the Troubles.

The Tory MP’s comment have been branded “pig ignorant” by the SDLP and “ill-informed” by Irish Tanaiste Simon Coveney after they surfaced in a video posted on Twitter.

In the clip Mr Rees-Mogg is shown at a town hall-style discussion on Brexit talking about the border, which has proved one of the most difficult parts of the Brexit negotiations with Brussels to solve. Both sides have ruled out a hard border.

In the clip Mr Rees-Mogg says that the UK could continue with “historic arrangements” to avoid a loophole that would allow people to enter the country. He added: “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.”

Last night, it emerged that the controversial remarks had been filmed at an EU debate at the University of Sussex in April 2016. However, that didn’t stop them going viral.

While he didn’t openly criticise Mr Rees-Mogg, DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson disagreed with the need for Troubles-style border arrangements.

“We’re very clear that what we want is a free trade agreement between the UK and the European Union, and of course that would mean the free movement of people, and it would also mean facilities for the movement of goods across the border without the need for new infrastructure to be put in place.

“The UK has made clear that whatever the outcome of these negotiations, they do not intend to put checkpoints on the border. That is a position which we support.

“The first element agreed between the EU and the UK was the continuation of the common travel area between the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic.

“Therefore, even in a ‘no deal’ scenario, we believe that the common travel area would continue to operate, and we would not see the need for people to be stopped.”

Mr Coveney highlighted the clip on Twitter, saying: “It’s hard to believe that a senior politician is so ill-informed about Ireland and the politics of the #Brexit Irish border issue that he could make comments like these.

“We have left ‘the Troubles’ behind us, through the sincere efforts of many, and we intend on keeping it that way.”

SDLP Brexit spokeswoman Claire Hanna MLA said the comments were “pig ignorant and a disturbing warning about the aspirations of extreme Brexiteers”.

Ms Hanna said: “It is offensive that a senior politician would use the ‘Troubles’ as a benchmark for solving the border issue. This unguarded answer exposes how empty all the honeyed phrases about not returning to ‘the borders of the past’ over the last two years really are.”

Belfast Telegraph