Leo Varadkar has warned the next British Prime Minister that he faces a “serious reality check” on Irish affairs when he gets into office in two weeks’ time.
The Taoiseach said that the two Tory contenders, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, are “campaigning in poetry,” but will have to turn to prose when they become leader of the United Kingdom.
The Taoiseach was speaking to Pat Kenny in a wide-ranging interview on Newstalk this morning.
Elsewhere in his interview, Mr Varadkar controversially compared Brexit to our own battle for independence from the British 100 years ago.
He said that it is not just about what makes sense economically, pointing out that our economic case for independence was weak, just like the one for Brexit is now.
On the border and backstop deadlock, he said that a possible solution to the dilemma after a no-deal Brexit could be to treat the whole island of Ireland as one, for agriculture and food customs checks purposes.
Mr Varadkar said: “Politicians when they’re in campaign mode - and both those men (Boris and Jeremy) are in campaign mode - tend to campaign in poetry, in simple terms and messages.
“When you get into office, you govern in prose.
“And I imagine that whoever becomes Prime Minister is going to face a very serious reality check when they sit down with their officials to be fully briefed on the realities of Brexit, if they don’t know them already.”
Comparing Brexit and Irish independence, he added: “I was thinking about this the other day.
“If we go back 100 years when we sought independence, when we decided to become an independent country from the British Empire, the wealthiest and most successful trading bloc in the world at the time, the economic case for Irish independence was really weak.”
