A top official in charge of Britain’s borders has suggested Tory Eurosceptics’ alternative Brexit plan is almost impossible to deliver.
Karen Wheeler, director general of borders for the government, said there is no “magical” technological solution that can maintain an invisible border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Instead the UK will have to stay in the EU’s single market and customs union, or adopt something similar “at the very least” to have “completely free” trade across the border.
But that would be seen by many hard Eurosceptics as “Brexit in name only” because it would not give Britain 100% control of its laws.
The issue has been the key flashpoint over the last five months of Brexit chaos.
Tory Brexiteers and the DUP have refused to back Theresa May’s deal because they believe the Irish backstop - which seeks to maintain an invisible border - would trap the whole UK in a customs union while Northern Ireland would have to follow many single market rules.
They have instead been backing a plan known as the “Malthouse compromise” which would see the backstop replaced with “alternative arrangements”, including technological solutions and trusted trader schemes, to maintain a soft border.
But according to the Belfast Telegraph, Wheeler told a Brexit advice conference in Belfast on Monday: “There is no technology solution which would mean that you could do customs controls and processes and not have a hard border.
“There is no magic solution that would make that go away.
“If there was, trust me, we would have found it.”
The civil servant also stressed that while technology exists for a certain level of customs checks and tracking of goods, not a single border in the world has a “full package” of measures that would keep it invisible.
“There is no such thing in the world at the moment at a land border which doesn’t have queues and processes and technologies,” she said.
“It may be that over a number of years more of those technologies will emerge. But some of those things are quite hard to avoid.”
And asked how to maintain a frictionless border without stopping Brexit completely, she replied: “What you need is, at the very least, something that looks like a customs union, plus something that looks like a single market, which has no customs or tariffs or regulatory standards or controls, if you are going to have completely free movement of goods across the border.”
A Border Delivery Group spokesperson said: “The UK Government has been resolute in its commitment to avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland and upholding the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.
“The deal we have agreed with the EU delivers the benefits of a customs union, while enabling us to have an independent trade policy. Substantive discussions around the use of alternative arrangements, including new technologies, have already taken place and both sides have committed to prioritise this programme of work.”