Leo Varadkar says Theresa May or pro-Brexiters cannot ‘just say no now’ to previous agreement

The Irish prime minister has said it is “not OK” for Theresa May to renege on a deal involving a “backstop” solution to the Irish border question that could mean Northern Ireland remaining in the customs union.

Dublin showed growing signs of frustration with the British government on Wednesday after the UK prime minister appeared to retreat from the agreement she made in December.

The taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said the 119-page draft Brexit treaty unveiled in Brussels was merely putting into legal effect the joint report sealed just before Christmas.

“It’s not OK for people, whether pro-Brexit politicians in Britain or parties in Northern Ireland, to just say ‘no’ now. It’s incumbent on them, if they can’t accept the backstop, well then they must detail how option A or B would work,” Varadkar told Newstalk radio.

“And actually write them down; they can’t be theoretical stuff about congestion charges and tolling in another country,” he said, referring to the British foreign secretary Boris Johnson’s suggestion that technology similar to that used for travelling between two London boroughs could apply to the Irish border.

Varadkar’s deputy, Simon Coveney, warned it would be “hard to see” how May could deliver on her promise of an invisible border if the UK left the customs union and the single market.

An audibly exasperated Coveney pointed out that Ireland had supported Britain’s desire to move to phase-two talks in December because of the very guarantees it had agreed on the Irish border.

“Nobody is looking to pick a fight, nobody’s looking to have a go at the British government,” he said on RTÉ’s News at One.

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“The problem here is the British government’s stated position [in December], and still now, is they want to make sure there is no border infrastructure between Northern Ireland and Ireland, they don’t want trade barriers between Northern Ireland and the UK, and that the UK is leaving the customs union and the single market – and those things are simply not compatible.

“It’s hard to see that being done if the British government continues to pursue leaving the customs union and the single market; it’s hard to see how you avoid border structures in that kind of context,” he said.

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The December deal signed by May included three options for dealing with the movement of trade and people over the 310-mile border.

The first option is that the overall final deal between the UK and Britain obviates the need for border checks by retaining the status quo. The second option is a “bespoke” solution.

Article 3 of the draft withdrawal agreement states that if the first two options from the December deal for the Irish border are not met then a backstop, option C, comes into play.

lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) Article 3 is brutally plain: "A common regulatory area comprising the Union and the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland is hereby established". pic.twitter.com/s6VrcnFgF5

Coveney and Varadkar said the onus was on Britain to come up with an alternative, something Ireland has been requesting for more than 12 months.

“Our response is, look, this [option C] doesn’t have to be the solution, but come up with something better that we can agree and we’d be delighted to agree,” said Coveney.

“We are trying to protect the status quo which is also protecting the Good Friday agreement in terms of north-south co-operation.”

“We have to see an approach coming from the British government that allows for trade between the EU and UK that’s doesn’t allow borders and that solves the problem for Northern Ireland which was agreed in December,” he said.

Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist party, which is propping up the Westminster government, said the deal was an attack on the constitutional links between Northern Ireland and Britain.

She tweeted:

Arlene Foster (@DUPleader) EU draft text is constitutionally unacceptable & would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland. I welcome the Prime Minister's commitment that HMG will not allow any new border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland must have unfettered access to GB market. AF

Coveney said Ireland was not “hardening” its position but was “simply holding” it.



“This isn’t trying to provoke, it’s not trying to reinterpret … We are simply translating what was agreed, albeit after a difficult negotiation, in December into a legal text. So nobody should be surprised.

“The Irish government has made it very clear – we’re not hardening our position, we’re simply holding our position. Yes, we want to move on to a proper and detailed discussion about what a future relationship is going to look like. We want that future relationship to be as close to the status quo as possible. We want the closest possible relationship with the UK, from a trade perspective, a political perspective, from a society perspective,” he said.