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Politics

19th Jun 2018

Brexit voters would rather lose Northen Ireland than remain in the EU

An interesting development

Rudi Kinsella

An interesting development

Two-thirds of people who voted in favour of leaving the EU would be prepared to accept a hard border in Northern Ireland, as long as it led to abandoning the customs union after Brexit.

One in three British Brexit voters said they would refuse to accept a different status for Northern Ireland after they leave the EU.

For Catholic and Nationalists voters, avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic was by far the most important consideration.

It also found that most Leave voters in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland believed that “modern technology would allow any customs checks to be done quickly and easily, so a border would not be damaging or disruptive.”

Six out of 10 Leave voters claimed that leaving the EU was more important than ensuring that Northern Ireland remains part of the European Union, according to the poll.

The poll was conducted by Conservative politician Michael Ashcroft, and all of the information can be found here.

Making sure Northern Ireland was treated the same as the rest of the UK was also more important than preventing a hard border, according to those surveyed in the poll.

Northern Ireland voted to remain, as a whole, with 56 per cent of voters being in favour of remaining part of the EU.