Ireland’s prime minister has dismissed as a non-starter Theresa May’s suggestion that the Canada-US border could be a model for the Irish border problem.

Leo Varadkar told reporters on Monday evening that it was out of the question. “I visited the Canada/US border back in August and saw physical infrastructure with customs posts, people in uniforms with arms and dogs and that is definitely not a solution that we could possibly entertain,” he said.



He told a press conference in Dublin with the Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel that he had not heard May’s speech and did not want to comment on it directly but he was clear this arrangement would not work in Ireland.



May made the US-Canada border suggestion during a Commons statement, citing it as an example of how frontiers between countries with different customs regimes could work.

Challenged on her claim by the shadow Brexit minister, Jenny Chapman, who pointed to the presence of armed customs guards on the US-Canada border, May said it was just one of several examples being examined.

The exchange came after May updated MPs about her Brexit speech in London on Friday, which set out several details of the government’s aims but gave no new details on how to prevent border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland if the UK leaves the EU’s customs union.

After the statement, the Labour MP Emma Reynolds asked May if she could name an international border between countries not in a customs union and with different external tariffs “where there are no checks on lorries carrying goods at the border”.

I’ve walked the Irish border – Brexiters are trampling on fragile territory | Garrett Carr Read more

May responded: “There are many examples of different arrangements for customs around the rest of the world, and indeed we are looking at those, including for example the border between the United States and Canada”.

Chapman challenged May on the idea of the US and Canada having a frictionless frontier: “There are guns and armed customs guards on that border – surely that is not what she has in mind? Can she perhaps find another example?”

May said: “What I said is that we are looking at the border arrangements in a number of countries around the world. We are looking not just at the border arrangements that the European Union has with a number of countries – and it has a variety of customs arrangements with various countries – we’re also looking more widely around the world”.

Labour MP Chris Leslie later described May’s suggestion as “staggering”, pointing out that anyone transiting goods over the American border had to have their trucks inspected with 23 items of data disclosed to 40 US agencies.



Chris Leslie (@ChrisLeslieMP) Does this notification at the United States Customs declaration post look like ‘no hard border’ to you @theresa_may ? These are the rules for persons crossing from Windsor, Canada into Detroit, USA....

Persons transiting goods have to declare 23 data elements to 40 US agencies! pic.twitter.com/ihbtC4LHzE

The Irish border question was later raised during a session of the EU scrutiny committee with the chancellor, Philip Hammond, who insisted there would be no new infrastructure.



The SNP MP Philippa Whitford, who was born in Belfast, said there had been a lot of discussion about technology including number plate recognition but suggested the issue was more complicated than that.

“Like many in the north, having lost family to the Troubles, simply having a camera on a pole ends up being a defended camera on a pole, which could end up being a patrolled defended camera on a pole,” she said, asking if Hammond understood the importance of the question.

He replied: “In the late 1970s I crossed that border twice a week, every week. I am clear what infrastructure at the border would mean, and I’m absolutely clear we are not going back there.”

The bulk of May’s statement was a reiteration of her speech, capped with an appeal for unity and a pledge that she would not walk away from talks with the EU.



“Yes, there will be ups and downs in the months ahead, but we will not be buffeted by the demands to talk tough or threaten a walkout, and we will not give in to the counsels of despair that this simply cannot be done,” she said.

“My message to our friends in Europe is clear: you asked us to set out what we wanted in detail; we have done that. We have shown we understand your principles. We have a shared interest in getting this right, so let’s get on with it.”

The prime minister received a generally loyal response from hardline Tory Brexiters. Bernard Jenkin said May had set out “the realistic compromises that this nation will have to make in order to achieve a comprehensive trade agreement” with the EU. “Don’t we now owe it to her to get behind her and her negotiations?” he asked.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, castigated May for having no answers about the Irish border, saying there had been “20 months of promises, soundbites and confusion”.

He said: “We’ve seen set-piece speech after set-piece speech and yet the prime minister still cannot bring clarity to these negotiations and still cannot bring certainty to British businesses or workers. The prime minister’s speech on Friday promised to unite the nation, but it barely papered over the cracks in her own party.”