The Scottish and Welsh first ministers have clashed over the idea of a separate Brexit deal for Scotland as leaders from across the UK met at a summit of the British-Irish Council. However, successive opinion polls including one taken after the Brexit vote show a majority within Northern Ireland still prefer to remain within the UK. His reference to East Germany raises the enormous costs Dublin would have to take on to absorb Northern Ireland into a new unitary state. One of them, the Northern Ireland secretary, James Brokenshire, said: “The prime minister strongly supports the British-Irish Council. That’s why you had two cabinet ministers and two other ministers here today strongly representing the UK government’s perspective.”

Source: The Guardian November 25, 2016 17:02 UTC