Boris Johnson and Irish counterpart at odds over Brexit border issue
Foreign secretary Boris Johnson and Irish equivalent Simon Coveney publicly disagreed on several issues related to the Irish border during a press conference ahead of their meeting to discuss Brexit on Friday.
Ahead of the meeting in Dublin, the foreign ministers were at odds over whether the issue of what happens with the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland must be dealt with ahead of the second phase of talks with the EU.
While Johnson was adamant the future of the border cannot be decided until talks move on to the second phase, Coveney argued the contrary.
“In order to resolve those issues and get it right for our peoples, it is necessary now to move on to the second stage of the negotiations which really entail so many of the questions that are bound up the Border issue,” Johnson said.
The former London mayor added that the position of the Conservative government is that “you can only really crack the problem" when the negotiations move on to the issue of trade.
Coveney rejected that claim however, reiterating the belief from EU negotiators that the UK has not made sufficient progress on the three key issues to advance to talks on trade.
“We are not in a place right now that allows us to do that,” he said.
A leaked EU paper last week suggested NI would have to remain in the customs union in order to avoid a hard border after Brexit. The proposal has been rejected by the UK government.