‘Workers may be in traffic jams for days’

British Labour’s point man on Ireland claimed workers employed in Derry, but living in Donegal, sometimes crossed the frontier up to six times a day getting to and from their places of work.

He made the remarks during an exchange with DUP MP, Gregory Campbell, at a recent sitting of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC).

“I talk to people that are very close to your constituency, Mr. Campbell, who cross that border to work in Altnagelvin Area Hospital in Derry. They probably cross that border half a dozen times on the way to work because of the nature of the historic road system,” said Mr. Lloyd.

The East Derry DUP representative was adamant, however, these workers “will continue to do so after April.”

Mr. Lloyd replied: “They may, but they may be in a traffic jam for more than a day or two. The answer that we are all coming to is that there must be no hard border.”

During the exchanges the Labour front-bencher said this outcome was deeply important to the people living in the Derry/Tyrone/Donegal community and right around the border in Ireland.

He said: “Mr Campbell, you will know from your own constituency that 35,000 people travel across the Irish border every day to go to work.

“People travel beyond work. They travel from Donegal to the cancer centre in Derry. People travel from your constituency to the children’s cardiac facility in Dublin.

“People travel to visit their aunts and uncles, to go shopping, to get petrol in Lifford across the river in Strabane.

“Any impediment to the normalcy that has been developed over the last 20 years would be part of that hard border.

“I am not trying to be romantic when I say that and I am not trying to make a very small case; these are things that are important to people’s way of life now, that have developed over those 20 years and they are things that people, rightly, accept as the normalcy of life.”

Mr. Campbell conceded that this was the case.

He said: “Yes, I understand that.”

But the DUP MP claimed that there would be no hard border, even if there was a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

“Relating to the issue in the Withdrawal Agreement about physical infrastructure, the Prime Minister has said that there will not be any, the Taoiseach has said that he is not planning for any and the EU has said that it does not want any. Have you spoken to anybody who has said: ‘But there is going to have to be some, if there is no agreement’? If you have, who are they?”

Mr. Lloyd answered: “Mr. Campbell, I have certainly spoken to people who have begun to consider the consequences if we were to see the erection of a hard border.

“For example, the Chief Constable of the PSNI has made it very clear that he has concerns about the impact of a hard border.”