Fury as Brexiteer who claimed ‘Brexit won’t hurt Northern Ireland’ suggests country ‘was sacrificed’

A Brexiteer who once penned a column arguing that Brexit would not “hurt Northern Ireland at all” is facing a backlash after appearing to admit the country was “sacrificed” so Brexit could happen.

Speaking on GB News last night, Kate Hoey, the former Labour MP for Vauxhall and life peer, left people reeling after seemingly implying it was known by some that chaos in Northern Ireland would ensue as a result of Brexit and that it was deemed acceptable so the policy could be realised, though she implied she didn’t agree with these people.

She said: “I think we all kind of know how we got here, that Northern Ireland was sacrificed because it could have been that we weren’t going to get Brexit at all.

“I personally couldn’t vote for the Withdrawal Agreement because of Northern Ireland but I could understand many of my colleagues in the Leave campaign because they have to do it.”

Previously, in 2016, the MP had written an article for the Telegraph in which she had claimed the policy will “brighten” the country’s future rather than cause harm.

Despite this, there have been issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol on Brexit, which puts a de facto border in the Irish sea between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain and places checks on goods travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland. In April there were protests at this border as frictionless trade is needed to maintain peace between the nations. A final decision about its future is set to end in a month’s time.

While Hoey has been extremely critical of the protocol, as a result of her words last night, those who saw the interview clip were furious with the MP and took to Twitter to express their outrage.

Elsewhere on the show, Hoey said the UK should not be scared to invoke Article 16 to send “shockwaves” across the EU.

Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol allows either side to unilaterally suspend parts of the agreement in times of emergency.

What a mess.