UK stance on Brexit ‘threatens free travel area’

Ireland’s leading expert on Brexit said Britain’s new hardline stance on exiting the EU is the worst possible outcome for Ireland which calls into question the future of the Common Travel Area between the two countries.

Edgar Morgenroth, associate research professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute and an adviser to the Government on Brexit, said prime minister Theresa May’s weekend declaration favouring a so-called hard Brexit has realised his worst fears over the potential hard Irish border in trade and people between the North and the south.

“My worst fears have been realised. It is somewhat staggering what they are doing in the UK,” he told the Irish Examiner.