A no-agreement Brexit could lead to a reunification of Northern Ireland and thus undermine the UK, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.
"One of the things that could really hurt (UK), paradoxically, is a hard Brexit: for both Northern Ireland and Scotland," Varadkar said on Friday at a summer School in County Donegal.
New British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asks the European Union for a new divorce agreement that includes "abolition" of the Irish "safety net", but this demand is deemed "unacceptable" by EU negotiator Michel Barnier. The "safety net", defended by Varadkar, aims to avoid, post-Brexit, the return of border controls between Northern Ireland (British province) and the neighbouring Irish Republic, EU member state.
"People that could be described as moderate nationalists or moderate Catholics, who more or less accepted the status quo, will start to look towards a united Ireland," Varadkar added. "And more and more you will see liberal Protestants and liberal Unionists begin to wonder where they feel most at home," he further said.
The Brussels Times
