Boris Johnson has dismissed fears of crashing out of the EU without a deal as ‘total nonsense’.He said we ‘should not be terrified of a no deal Brexit’ and says the country is ‘doomed’ if it doesn’t end up leaving.
Mr Johnson and Jeremy Hunt made their pitches to become the UK’s next Prime Minister at the latest Conservative Party hustings today in Belfast.
Shrugging off concerns about no-deal fallout, he said: ‘I think we should be very positive about about Brexit.
‘We should not be terrified of a no-deal Brexit, we should not be terrified of coming out on WTO (World Trade Organisation) terms
‘I think a lot of negativity about a WTO Brexit has been wildly overdone.
‘We will have a successful Brexit. The planes will fly, there will be clean drinking water and there will be whey for the Mars bars because where there’s a will there’s a way.’
When challenged on the EU’s reluctance to drop Theresa May’s Chequers deal and to go back to the negotiating table, he called the current withdrawal agreement a ‘dead letter’.
Just like his fellow contender, Mr Johnson felt confident that technology is the answer to concerns that leaving without a deal would mean the return of a hard border in Ireland.
He said there will ‘under no circumstances’ be a hard border on the island, saying the issue will be resolved in a free trade deal after Brexit.
Mr Johnson added: ‘Of course we need to sort out the problems of the Northern Irish border, where those problems should be sorted out in the context of the free trade deal that we are going to do when we have left on October 31.
‘I think it’s absolutely vital here in Northern Ireland to stress two things.
‘Number one: that we will under no circumstances have a hard border. There will be no physical checks or infrastructure at the border in Northern Ireland.
‘And number two: we will make sure we have an exit from the EU, a Brexit, that allows the whole UK to come out entire and undivided and we keep our union absolutely intact.’
Mr Johnson dismissed the idea of a ‘snap referendum’ to ask the people of Northern Ireland if they would want temporary membership of a customs union.
He quipped: ‘The only thing I think would snap is people’s patience.’
When asked about pro-remain members of his party and attempts to delay the Brexit process, he said the country is ‘doomed’ if it doesn’t press on with this ‘existential’ issue.
In reference to Game of Thrones and parts of Star Wars being filmed in Northern Ireland, host Iain Dale asked Mr Johnson which characters from the two franchises he most identifies with.
He said he didn’t know Game of Thrones well enough but said seemed pretty clued up on his Star Wars trivia.
Mr Johnson said: ‘I identify very much with the guy with the lightsaber, the Jedi, that’s it.’
He said the sci-fi weapons were designed and created in his West London constituency of Uxbridge and has a ‘beautiful’ one in his office in Westminster.
Mr Johnson added: ‘We invited the lightsaber in Uxbridge, it’s wielded in Northern Ireland and the resulting filrm was screened around the world’.
Foreign Secretary Mr Hunt said he identifies most with Game of Throne’s Jon Snow, worryingly, the one character famed for ‘knowing nothing’.
Jeremy Hunt has dismissed suggestions from hustings host Iain Dale he’s trying to ‘out Boris Boris’ and has turned ‘very Brexity’.
He said he’s always thought the country needs to prepare for the possibility of crashing out with a no-deal but called his rival an ‘absolutist’.
The foreign secretary said if it meant securing a decent deal with the European Union, he ‘wouldn’t rip that up’ if it crept over the current October 31 deadline.
When asked about the Northern Irish backstop he said he accepts it doesn’t have the support of most unionists in Northern Ireland.
He added: ‘I do recognise that we are never going to have a deal to leave the EU with the backstop, so it has to change or it has to go.
‘We have to find a different solution and I think it will be a technology-led solution, what the Germans call an invisible border. Both sides agree that if technology can do this, it’s the way forward.’
The Irish backstop, which parliament rejected three times, is an insurance policy designed to prevent the return of a hard border between the Irish Republic and the British province of Northern Ireland.
Mr Hunt gave his commitment to get powersharing back up and running in Nothern Ireland, where the regional government has been suspended since January 2017.
He said: ‘First of all it’s totally unacceptable that politicians who are paid to run the NHS, to run the schools, to promote inward investment are not turning up to work and doing their job.
Mum ‘murdered daughters because they got in her way of her sex work’
‘We have to be absolutely clear, this is a big abdication of responsibility and they need to get back to delivering what was a fundamental tenet of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement which was that devolved assembly.
‘What would I do as Prime Minister? Well, I think the lesson of that historic achievement back in 1998 is that the only way to do this is with the personal involvement of the prime minister.
‘I think Theresa May has been very committed to Northern Ireland and to the union but I give you this commitment that I too as prime minister will put in the time personally to get that assembly back up and running.’
Pressed on the issue of same sex marriage in Northern Ireland, he said he believed it is a devolved issue and needs an ‘element of social consent’ if it’s to be legalised in the province.
He said he would want to see gay marriage and abortion legalised there if he was Northern Irish.
Both Tory leadership candidates said pressing social and economic issues is all the more reason for the long-standing deadlock at Stormont to finally be resolved.
