ONE of Theresa Villiers' cabinet colleagues has cast doubt on her claim that free movement could continue across the Irish border in the event of a UK withdrawal from Europe.
Pro-EU environment minister Liz Truss yesterday described Brexit as a "leap in the dark" and said nobody could say with any certainty what would happen if the Leave campaign won June 23's referendum.
Ms Truss joins a growing list of people on both sides of campaign to cast doubt on Ms Villiers' claim that the Common Travel Area (CTA) between Ireland and Britain would remain in place if the UK broke ties with Brussels.
In recent weeks, Leave campaign chairman Lord Nigel Lawson and the Northern Ireland Office have both contradicted the secretary of state.
Speaking to The Irish News in March, she dismissed talk of reinstating border posts as a "scare story" and insisted that if Britain left the EU, "common sense" would prevail and allow free movement of people and goods between the north and the Republic.
Around 60 per cent of the north's exports go to the EU, with 37 per cent going to the Republic alone.
But during a visit to the Balmoral Show yesterday where she was highlighting the value of EU membership to the north's food and farming sectors, Ms Truss said nobody could say how a post-Brexit border would look.
"We can't guarantee anything if we leave," she said.
Asked if her cabinet colleague Ms Villiers was wrong to insist the CTA would remain in place, the environment secretary said: "I think frankly it's a leap in the dark – we simply don't know the facts around many of these issues."
Ms Truss said if Britain left the single market there would be a need for "customs checks and controls".
She also said the size of the north's food and farming sectors meant the impact of a Brexit on the region would be more severe that in Britain.
"Across the UK, 60 per cent of food and drink exports go to the EU but in Northern Ireland it's 83 per cent, so it has a much bigger impact on farm incomes and livelihoods in the long-term," she said.
The environment minister said red tape – often cited by farmers as a major hindrance – was also likely to increase.
"A lot of people say we'll get less regulation if we leave the EU but the opposite is true," she said.
"We end up facing UK regulation and then EU regulation as well to export into those markets."
Meanwhile, the environment under-secretary George Eustice, who was also at Balmoral yesterday, said there was a difference between being pro-European and being in favour of the EU system of government.
Further highlighting the split in the Tory party over the EU, Mr Eustice urged farmers to support the Leave campaign.
"I believe that if this country votes to leave, then in five years’ time the only question people will ask themselves is why we didn’t do it sooner," he said.
