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30th Sep 2018

David Davis makes astonishingly untrue claim about buying pints in Dublin

Rory Cashin

He also accuses the Irish government of ‘oversimplifying’ the border issue.

David Davis is a British Conservative Party politician and the former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, so he is, you would imagine, about as intimately aware of the delicate nature Brexit might have between Ireland and the UK.

Having said that, during an interview with Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on the topic of the potential impact Brexit might have on Ireland, he accused the Irish government (and the EU commission) of attempting to oversimplify the situation, by looking for a ‘sweeping political answer’.

He also says that the biggest issue with the border will be tax, because: “It doesn’t matter if you’re using a Euro or the pound. You can buy a pint in Belfast in Euros, or you can buy a pint in Dublin in pounds.” Something which is absolutely untrue about Dublin.

Later in the same interview, Davis is asked if he would accept a longer transition to get issues like the Irish border right, and replied: “We don’t need one, we literally don’t need one.”

Considering this has come just hours after Boris Johnson declared that “What we need to do is build a bridge between our islands. Why don’t we? Why don’t we?”

Twitter was quite to point out some of the issues with Davis’ stance: