'˜Chaotic Brexit' looks imminent - Kearney

Nationalist members of Mid Ulster Council have voted through another Brexit motion calling for the backstop as defined in Paragraph 49 of the joint report of December 2017 to be the legally binding withdrawal agreement.

The council also want full EU rights of citizens protected as proposed in the current draft withdrawal agreement.

Speaking after the meeting, SDLP Councillor Martin Kearney claimed a chaotic Brexit looks imminent.

“As we enter into another critical period we have a dilemma which remains as intractable as ever,” he said.

“No substantial progress has yet been achieved on agreeing a backstop solution. There is understandable anger that two years after the Referendum, 15 months after Article 50 was triggered, six months since December’s Joint Report, three months since Theresa May stated she was committed to a legally operable backstop, there is little on offer.”

Ulster Unionist Party Councillor Trevor Wilson argued that council should not be debating matters over which it has “no control or competence.”

“On Brexit the Ulster Unionist Party has been consistent - the UK voted to leave the EU and leave we shall, as a United Kingdom,” he told the Mail.

“As unionists we say again - Brexit cannot and will not be allowed to be used as a mechanism to isolate Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.”’