The UK’s new Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has been left red-faced over his poor geography knowledge after it emerged he doesn’t know the difference between the Red Sea and the Irish Sea.
Footage of Mr Raab attempting to reassure colleagues about the location of the border between the UK and the EU after Brexit sees him getting his bearings spectacularly wrong.
It was filmed in 2018, when he was the UK’s Brexit Minister.
He said: “We’ve made clear and I’ve made clear in the house again earlier that we would do nothing that would draw a customs border down the Red Sea.”
While this sounds like good news for people in the Middle East, the issue in question is actually the Irish Sea.
After Brexit there will need to be a customs border between the UK and EU. All parties agree that this mustn’t take shape as a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, which could jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement and see a return to violence.
However, the solution of a backstop, which would see Northern Ireland remain in the customs union until another solution is figured out, has angered Brexiteers.
Another solution of having the border in the Irish Sea has angered Northern Ireland’s DUP who say it would treat Northern Ireland differently to the rest of the UK.
Mr Raab’s assurance that there would be no border in the Red Sea is unlikely to satisfy them.
It isn’t the first time the Foreign Secretary’s lack of basic knowledge has seen him ridiculed by the public.
He admitted to not being aware of the importance of the Dover- Calais crossing was to trade between the UK and EU.
Raab said: “I hadn’t quite understood the full extent of this, but if you look at the UK and look at how we trade in goods, we are particularly reliant on the Dover-Calais crossing.”
Here is Dominic Raab our newly appointed Foreign Secretary, who didn’t realise we were separated from France by water, confusing the Irish Sea with the Red Sea. I kid you not! pic.twitter.com/XgpOnXVBFa
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) 28 July 2019