British politician Nigel Farage has claimed that Ireland will vote to leave the European Union.
The former UKIP leader was instrumental in the UK’s Brexit vote, which saw the UK public vote to leave the EU.
The process has proved to be far more complicated than was promised before the vote. A major problem being the border between the EU and the UK.
The UK, Ireland and the EU all agree that there can be no ‘hard border’ between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
However, the alternative would be for the border being in the Irish Sea – an option that angers the DUP who don’t want Northern Ireland to be treated differently from the rest of the UK.
The DUP hold an unusual amount of power as they are currently propping up a weak Conservative government.
Brexiteers such as Mr Farage believe the problem would go away if Ireland also left the EU. The only problem is that the Irish public want to remain by a huge majority of 88%, according to latest polling figures.
Mr Farage appeared on Claire Byrne Live on Irish TV and ignored the poll and declared that Ireland will leave the EU.
Byrne asked him if he had considered or cared about the effect Brexit was having on Ireland.
He responded: “Oh I do, and I think ultimately Ireland will leave the European Union too.”
He went on to suggest that Ireland would change their mind and cited the Lisbon Treaty as an indicator.
He said: “Just as you were all going to vote for the Lisbon Treaty but in the end you didn’t, you voted against the Lisbon Treaty, you were forced to vote again.”
After Byrne explained the change in circumstances that led to a change of result in the second vote, Farage changed the subject back to the EU.
Take a look at the video below.
Nigel Farage: Ultimately, Ireland will leave the EU too.@Nigel_Farage tells #cblive that he cares about what happens in Ireland in the context of #BREXIT pic.twitter.com/49ntMCIQJk
— RTÉ ClaireByrneLive (@ClaireByrneLive) 28 January 2019
Written by Michael Kehoe @michaelcalling