Labour MPs want Barry Gardiner sacked for saying the Irish border is being 'played up' for economic gain

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Labour MPs want Barry Gardiner sacked for saying the Irish border is being 'played up' for economic gain

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Barry Gardiner

REUTERS/Darren Staples

Barry Gardiner.

  • Labour MPs call for Barry Gardiner to be sacked after he is recorded saying the risks of a hard Irish border were being "played up" for economic reasons.
  • The shadow trade secretary described the Irish peace process as a "shibboleth" being used for economic gain in Brexit talks during a private meet-up in Brussels last month.
  • It was the same meeting in which he said Labour should be prepared to vote for a Brexit deal it doesn't agree with, as Business Insider reported last month.
  • Gardiner denies all reports despite a recording, a transcript and attendees confirming the reported remarks.

 

LONDON - Labour's Barry Gardiner is at the centre of a fresh Brexit row over a leaked recording which captured him claiming the Irish border issue is being "played up" in negotiations for economic reasons.

Politicians, academics and groups have warned that the return a hard border in Ireland risked a re-emergence of paramilitary violence and should be avoided at all costs in Brexit talks.

However, the shadow trade secretary told a private meeting in Brussels last month that the consequences of a hard Irish border were being exaggerated to keep the Republic closely wedded to the European Union.

"I think we must also recognise that there are real economic reasons why people have played up the issue of the Irish border and the need to have the shibboleth of the Good Friday agreement," Gardiner said, according to reports from The Guardian and Labour website The Red Roar.

"And that is because it is hugely in the Republic of Ireland's economic interest to make sure that there is no tariff and no external border there."

Gardiner's comments mark a break from official Labour policy, which is to oppose any Brexit deal which leads to physical infrastructure on the Irish border as a result of Britain's departure from the EU.

Listen to Gardiner describe the Irish peace process as a "shibboleth"

There was outrage among Labour MPs on Monday night in reaction to The Guardian and Red Road reports.

Owen Smith - who was sacked as Labour's Northern Ireland spokesperson last month - used a tweet to accuse Gardiner of "joining the Tory Brexiteers" and later suggested he should also be removed from shadow cabinet.

A Labour MP told BI: "Incredible. As if the men with the bullets and bombs give a toss about why there's a hard border. They surely have to sack him."

Gardiner is currently on a three-week holiday in New Zealand but described reports as "nonsense on stilts" in a tweet on Monday. 

 

In the same meeting - an invite-only event hosted by German political institute Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung - Gardiner said Labour parliamentarians should be prepared to vote for a Brexit deal it doesn't agree with, Business Insider exclusively reported last month.

"Let's look at the consequence of there being no deal. The UK will crash out of the EU," according to a transcript of the event obtained by BI and confirmed by attendees.

"It's exactly what the far right have been pushing for."

He added: "The European Parliament should consider very carefully before voting against any agreement, even if it's not the agreement you want."

Gardiner's suggestion that May's deal should be approved, even if parliamentarians disagree with it, is another break from Labour's official policy, which is to reject any Brexit deal which doesn't pass the six "tests" unveiled by Shadow Brexit Secretary, Sir Keir Starmer, last year.

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