'We WILL move forward!' Tory Brexiteer SHUTS DOWN Greens leader with furious put down
EUROSCEPTIC Tory Graham Brady shut down Green leader Caroline Lucas after she suggested the Government was jeopardising peace in Northern Ireland with plans to withdraw from the customs union after Brexit.
Graham Brady slams Lucas over Customs Union
Sir Graham Brady dismissed the Green leader's suggestion that leaving the EU customs union as part of Brexit would threaten peace in Northern Ireland.
The leader of the 1922 Committee argued that the Government had already taken into consideration possible solutions to protect free trade and the free movement of people between the two Irish nations.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live: "We have that open free trade, we already have a common travel area so there is no impediment to people moving across the border.
"You can do an awful lot of moving goods through technology, through trusted traders status. We are in a negotiation, Caroline."
Brexit news: Sir Graham Brady shut down Lucas' calls to keep the UK in the customs union
The Irish border has become a huge point of contention during Brexit negotiations, with both Britain and the European Union speaking out against the creation of a hard border.
Sir Graham continued: "Bertie Ahern, the former Taoiseach, made it very clear that it can work and what it needs crucially is good will on both sides.
"We’ve got a huge amount of dos will between Ireland and the United Kingdom. And we will move forward in a sensible way.
"It’s obvious that if you have a deep free trade arrangement, as we will with our European partners –is in their interests, it makes perfect common sense - nobody ever moves from a tariff-free trade arrangement to building up tariff barriers between countries."
Assembly Member: Government will use project fear for soft Brexit
They have been made to worry about it
Caroline Lucas had previously suggested Brexit could jeopardise the Belfast Agreement which secured peace in Northern Ireland.
She said: "When we are dealing with something as serious as the future of peace in Northern Ireland, the idea you would be as careless and as reckless as the Government is proposing to be by coming out of the customs union, I think is just unforgivable.
"The Taoiseach himself is saying the proposed solutions won’t work. EU officials are saying it is magical thinking, they are saying it is delusional.
"The people in Ireland themselves are deeply concerned about this. They don’t believe these technological solutions are going to be able to work.
"Our EU partners don’t believe they are going to be able to work and the reason for that is there is no example anywhere in the world where they have worked."