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EU Trying to 'Beat Britain Into Submission' - Ireland Leave Supporters

LONDON (Sputnik) - The European Union is trying to punish the United Kingdom and beat it "into submission" at the ongoing Brexit negotiations, Hermann Kelly, the spokesman for the Irexit Freedom Party, told Sputnik.
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Irexit Freedom, which is not registered yet, was launched earlier in September. The party is campaigning for Ireland to leave the European Union.

"The only problem at the minute is EU intransigence which wants to punish and beat Britain into submission. But hopefully this time [Prime Minister] Theresa May, for the first time in these negotiations, will refuse the EU on what is essentially a plan to annex Northern Ireland so it remains in the European Union," Kelly said.

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The party spokesman argued that there was already a very real possibility of a "smart border" between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, one that would ensure the smooth transit of goods and persons using a plethora of technological solutions already utilized in traffic between Norway and Sweden.

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"This technology is available and if there is the political will to do it, it can be very successful. So there's no hassle about infrastructure between the north and the south of Ireland. It seems though that the EU doesn't want to have it between Britain and Ireland, but if they're happy to use it there [in other parts of Europe] then it would make sense to use that same technology between the north and south of Ireland," Kelly said.

A "Smart Border 2.0" plan has been in circulation for some time, with the original study having been commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizen's Rights and Constitutional Affairs in 2017.

"It [smart border] has been workable for some time since the original report came out. But the EU wanted to bully all of the British people into accepting the annexation of Northern Ireland by the European Union, and I really do hope that May will have the backbone to stand up against it," Kelly said.

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The issue of Northern Ireland remains a sore point in Brexit negotiations. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly stressed that London would not tolerate any border separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom.

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