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Roundup: Britain-Ireland border new EU frontier if Brexit wins: Osborne

Xinhua, June 7, 2016 Adjust font size:

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne Monday travelled to the only part of Britain with a land border leading to another EU country as part of the Remain campaign.

Osborne stood at a crossing between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, saying it would become a new EU frontier if Britons vote to leave on June 23, according to the campaign headquarters in London.

Osborne also warned Northern Ireland farmers would be badly hit if Brexit wins the vote, saying the Westminster government would not be able to match the billions of dollars Northern Ireland receives in subsidies from Brussels.

The Chancellor told media gathered at the border: "I'm here at Warrenpoint and it's a very practical demonstration that Northern Ireland has the only land border with an EU country."

"If we quit the EU, this is going to be Britain's border with the EU. There would have to be a hardening of the border imposed by the British Government or indeed by the Irish Government and that would have an impact on business," he said.

In a media interview later, Member of Parliament Sammy Wilson from Northern Ireland's largest political party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said Osborne's comments did not stand up to scrutiny.

Wilson said: "There's a land border between Norway and Sweden and you don't have those kind of checks and those border posts. There's a land border between France and Switzerland and you don't have sealing of the border, so why would Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland be any different?"

Long before the Britain and the Irish Republic both joined the EU, there was free movement for British and Irish residents across the border under a Common Travel Area agreement.

Meanwhile, in London, the Leave campaign claimed the EU will demand even more money from Britain if it stays in the EU.

A statement Monday from their camp said: "We will be paying for the next Eurozone bailouts. We will be paying for a higher EU budget and new figures uncovered by the Vote Leave campaign show we will be paying a 2.4 billion pounds (3.47 billion U.S. dollars) extra bill soon after the referendum."

"David Cameron's deal did nothing to protect us from these three dangers. The European Court will be in charge of deciding any disputes over our bills and over Cameron's deal," it said.

Brexit campaigner, former London mayor Boris Johnson said: "The risks of remain are massive. Not only do we hand over more than 350 million pounds (5.06 billion U.S. dollars) a week to the EU, but if we vote to stay the British people will be on the hook for even more cash. It is a triple whammy of woe: the eurozone is being strangled by stagnation, unemployment and a lack of growth, it could explode at any time and we will be forced to bail it out."

In another move Monday, seven of Britain's most senior former police chiefs warned leaving Europe would make Britain "less safe."

Two former Scotland Yard chiefs who headed London's Metropolitan Police were among the seven who have written an open letter, which says membership of the EU makes Britain more secure.

Leaving the EU would be "a gamble with our security," they warn, saying it would make harder to tackle terrorism and organized crime. Endit