Leading Tories have dismissed a proposal to create an underwater tunnel linking Scotland and Northern Ireland, with one MP arguing that ministers need to focus on making the current Brexit arrangements work.
“Let’s concentrate on making the protocol work and put the hallucinogenics down,” Simon Hoare, chair of the Northern Ireland committee, said.
It came as new figures showed a boom in direct trade from the Republic of Ireland and France. Continental freight traffic between Irish and French ports was up 447 per cent in January, as businesses seek to avoid red tape disruption in the UK.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has been urged to unleash “radical” Thatcherite policies in the north of England to help create a “northern Big Bang”, with the Northern Research Group (NRG) of Tory MPs backing a new report calling for deregulation and investment in the region.
