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Arlene Foster says taoiseach's remarks highlight Brexit deal's 'false choices'

Arlene Foster said the Brexit withdrawal deal would leave the north 'trapped'
Arlene Foster said the Brexit withdrawal deal would leave the north 'trapped' Arlene Foster said the Brexit withdrawal deal would leave the north 'trapped'

ARLENE Foster has said Leo Varadkar's insistence that the Dublin government is not contemplating a hard border if the Brexit withdrawal deal is rejected highlights the "false choices" on which the draft agreement is based.

The taoiseach said on Sunday that a hard border wasn't necessarily an inevitable consequence of the EU-UK deal not being agreed.

He said that if the future relationship was "right" there may be no need to invoke the backstop.

Just 48 hours earlier, however, the Fine Gael leader had said the draft Brexit deal was the only way to avoid a hard border.

In a statement last night, the DUP leader said Mr Varadkar's claim that the Irish government is not contemplating a hard border underlined why a focus on the backstop was "only ever a negotiating tactic by the European Union".

"We have been told that the backstop is only necessary to prevent such a hard border, but these comments make it clear that the EU’s insistence on a backstop was not aimed at this," the former first minister said.

"The European Union’s focus on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic has only ever been a negotiating tactic to secure its own aims in the negotiations."

Mrs Foster said the comments also further underscored how the inclusion of a so-called border down the Irish Sea within the draft agreement was "not only unacceptable but is also unnecessary".

"The withdrawal agreement was based on the false choice that an internal UK border was the only way to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic," she said.

"The agreement that has been put on the table is clearly not a good deal and no-one should be forced into accepting another false choice."

The DUP leader said the "really bad deal" would lock Northern Ireland into the EU with no way out.

"We would be trapped," she said.

Mrs Foster said it was "time to work for a better deal".