Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has given his backing to a proposed £15bn bridge linking Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The Telegraph has reported that Mr Johnson said the bridge should be "seriously" considered by the Government.

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The DUP's former Health Minister Simon Hamilton previously backed a plan linking Northern Ireland with Scotland in an article for The Belfast Telegraph.

"Imagine being able to board a train in Belfast or Dublin and be in Glasgow or Edinburgh in just a few hours. It would revolutionise our trade and tourism never mind our sense of interconnectedness. It maybe isn't as unrealistic an idea as you'd first think," Mr Hamilton wrote.

Alan Dunlop, an academic from Liverpool University suggested the bridge could be between Larne and the village of Portpatrick in south west Scotland, or between Torr Head on the Antrim Coast and the Mull of Kintyre.

He said the bridge would be similar to the one connecting Denmark and Sweden across the Oresund Strait and could be completed for a cost of between £15bn to £20bn.

A source close to Mr Johnson told The Telegraph: “Boris thinks this is an interesting idea which should be looked at more seriously - as politicians in both Scotland and Northern Ireland have already said.

“It's the kind of ambitious project we need to make a success of Global Britain.”

Mr Johnson has previously shown support for a bridge linking England and France.

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