May said she stood by commitments she has made previously on the border issue. She said the draft legal text the European Commission had published would, if implemented, threaten the constitutional integrity of Britain by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, adding: “No UK prime minister could ever agree to it.”
“I will be making it crystal clear to (European Commission) President Jean-Claude Juncker and others that we will never do so,” May added.
“We are committed to ensuring that we see no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, but the December text also made clear that there should continue to be trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom as there is today,” she said.
Main opposition leader Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn accused May’s government of being in disarray over Brexit. May insisted there was no disagreement with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on the Irish border question.
“The foreign secretary and I are absolutely committed to ensuring that we deliver no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland,” May told Corbyn. She added: “That’s the position of the British government. It’s the position of the parties in Northern Ireland, it’s the position of the Irish government, and it was what we agreed in the December agreement of that joint report.”
