During the meeting, Theresa Villiers, the Brexit-backing former Northern Ireland secretary, asked whether alignment was a possibility, but sources said the reply was non-committal. Rampant optimism over Irish border deal proves entirely misplaced Read more“We cannot align the regulation of one part of the United Kingdom with the European Union. Rees-Mogg said the DUP and the Tories were in total agreement – as he stressed the support of the Northern Irish party was necessary to maintain the government’s majority in the House of Commons. As he said, we are not going to trade on distinctions between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. MP Anna Soubry, the former cabinet minister, said a simple solution to the Irish border issue would be for the UK to stay in the single market and the customs union.

Source: The Guardian December 04, 2017 21:06 UTC