When Sir Jeffrey Donaldson campaigned to leave the EU, how exactly did he think the matter of the border would be resolved?

Question

Donaldson complains bitterly that the Unionists in Northern Ireland have been let down by the Johnson government. That may well be the case - and it undoubtedly appears that there has been double dealing on the part of Westminster.

But when Donaldson was a firm advocate of leaving the EU, how did he think the border issue with the Republic of Ireland would be managed post Brexit?

Is he one of several Brexiters who are now saying that their problems might go away if only Britain would enter a free-trade agreement with the EU?

Answer 1

I can't find anything from Sir Jeffery on this matter before 23/6/16 but the view of the DUP can be summed up by Nigel Dodds (then deputy leader of the DUP)

We have come through far, far more difficult challenges to the political institutions in the peace process than this issue

So the DUP thought that this issue would be easily resolved by negotiation. Essentially the DUP thought that this was a non-issue:

[The peace process is] not going to be interrupted or disadvantaged by whatever decision we make on the EU membership issue.

Answer 2

Donaldson may have taken leave campaigners at their word when they said that the UK would either remain a member of the single market, or have unfettered access to it. If that were the case there would be no problem in Northern Ireland, since UK goods would meet all EU standards and the UK would be on a level playing field (i.e. employment law, environmental protections and so forth would remain compliant with EU directives).

For example, Michael Gove of the official Leave campaign said

“There is a free trade zone stretching from Iceland to Turkey that all European nations have access to, regardless of whether they are in or out of the euro or EU. After we vote to leave we will remain in this zone.

“The suggestion that Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and the Ukraine would stay part of this free trade area - and Britain would be on the outside with just Belarus - is as credible as Jean-Claude Juncker joining UKIP.

“Agreeing to maintain this continental free trade zone is the simple course and emphatically in everyone’s interests.”

In April 2016 he added

“Outside the EU, we would still benefit from the free trade zone which stretches from Iceland to the Russian border. But we wouldn’t have all the EU regulations which cost our economy £600m every week.”

The countries he mentioned have all harmonized their laws and standards, in preparation for potentially joining the EU. Remaining in alignment with EU rules is required for the kind of access that they have.

Similarly, Dominic Raab suggested that the UK would continue to trade freely with the EU, of which alignment is an absolute requirement that all other countries with even partial free trade deals/partial customs unions have met.

“We’re very well placed, and mutual self-interest suggests we’d cut a very good deal and it’s certainly not in the European’s interests to erect trade barriers.”

BBC Sunday Politics, June 2016

“The idea that Britain would be apocalyptically off the cliff edge if we left the EU is silly.”

BBC Daily Politics, April 2016

Matthew Elliott, the chief executive of Vote Leave, was of a similar oppinon.

“It’s clear the trade deck is stacked in the UK’s favour. EU trade is shrinking yet we are held back from striking deals with emerging markets as we’ve given up control to Brussels. The real question should be why our EU neighbours wouldn’t be clambering over themselves to secure a free trade deal with their biggest market.”

March 2016

Absolutely nobody is talking about threatening our place in the Single Market

Daniel Hannan MEP, April 2016

Only a madman would actually leave the Market

Owen Paterson MP, November 2014

Wouldn't it be terrible if we were really like Norway and Switzerland? Really? They're rich. They're happy. They're self-governing

Nigel Farage, BBC Question Time, January 2013

Increasingly, the Norway option looks the best for the UK

Arron Banks, Leave.EU founder, Twitter, December 2015

Even after the referendum, in July 2017 then international trade secretary Liam Fox said

“The free trade agreement that we will have to do with the European Union should be one of the easiest in human history. We are already beginning with zero tariffs, and we are already beginning at the point of maximal regulatory equivalence, as it is called. In other words, our rules and our laws are exactly the same.”

Answer 3

The view of the UK government as a whole was that the North\South border would be a soft border over which Irish nationals (and those with leave to remain) would travel freely as they did pre Brexit, and through which goods would travel using a digital permit system under which shipments would be registered electronically at their destination port and then verified manually at their destination port, and that it would largely be an honour system that was maintained by intelligence lead policing and spot checks to keep out bad actors.

This vision hinged on the EU accepting that Northern Ireland could contain two categories of goods. Those that were compliant with EU regulations which could be transported across the border with an electronic permit, and those which complied with domestic legislation, which would not be transported across the border.

In essence, if a company intended to export to Southern Ireland they would need to comply with EU regulations, but if they intended for their goods to be used domestically within the UK they wouldn't need to.