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Northern Ireland first minister says border poll won't be called | Northern Ireland first minister says border poll won't be called |
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Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist first minister, Arlene Foster, has predicted that, unlike Scotland, there will be no poll on the region’s place within the UK after the Brexit vote. | |
Foster was responding to demands from the Sinn Féin deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, for a referendum on a united Ireland following Britain’s vote to leave the EU. | |
Related: Osborne: Brexit would bring 'economic shock' to Northern Ireland | Related: Osborne: Brexit would bring 'economic shock' to Northern Ireland |
The Irish prime minister has also entered the debate over the impact of Brexit on both the republic and Northern Ireland. The taoiseach, Enda Kenny, said that in post-Brexit negotiations he would press for the continuation of the EU’s common travel area, which allows freedom of movement between Northern Ireland and the republic, and between Ireland and Britain. | |
Irish nationalists including the former taoiseach Bertie Ahern have said that in order to fulfil its promise to dramatically reduce immigration into the UK, a post-Brexit British government would have to reimpose border controls on its only land frontier with an EU state. | |
The border runs for just over 300 miles, from Lough Foyle in north-west Ireland to Carlingford Lough on the Irish Sea in the east. During the Troubles, many of the 200 unapproved roads linking the north and south were sealed off by physical barriers while troops and police manned armed checkpoints to halt IRA attacks being launched from the south. | |
Ahern said the Irish republic could become a new backdoor into the UK for people-traffickers, migrants and refugees via the border with Northern Ireland. | |
On Sinn Féin’s demand for a border poll on Northern Ireland’s constitutional future, Foster said: “Martin McGuinness calls periodically for a border poll. If you look at the test for a border poll, that test has not been satisfied and therefore, the secretary of state won’t call a border poll. We have nothing to fear. He is being opportunistic and there is no way, that even if there were a border poll – and I don’t want to have one – that it would be in favour of a united Ireland.” | |
Speaking on RTÉ television, McGuinness said it was a democratic imperative that a region which voted in favour of remaining in the EU should be given a referendum to determine if Northern Ireland stays in the UK. | |
Responding to the Brexit outcome, Kenny said he would attend next week’s European council meeting with a view to defending the common travel area between the UK and Ireland. | |
He said: “For our part, the Irish government will do our utmost in upcoming discussions to maintain the common travel area and minimise any possible disruptions to the flow of people, goods and services between these islands. | |
“We are also acutely aware of the concerns which will be felt across the Irish community in Britain. I want to assure them that the Irish government will also have their interests in our thinking as we approach the forthcoming negotiations.” |