30 days to ditch the backstop - a new Brexit ultimatum for the UK. But what happens to the border after October 31st if there's no deal?

Aug 22, 2019, 09:23 AM

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Just weeks to go now until Brexit and the German chancellor Angela Merkel says if its not sorted within 30 days, it's No Deal. So lets spell out the big questions for Northern Ireland - with only weeks now to get answers is the border going to stay open on 1st November? If it does - is Northern Ireland the gateway into the UK for the whole of Europe? Spain, Portugal, Poland, France, Italy - if any of these people want into the UK without checks, the open border into NI will be the gateway - how will it not be. Meanwhile, if there does need to be a border down the Irish sea, so that the UK is controlling some part of immigration - are British Northern Irish citizens going to be checked travelling to England, Scotland and Wales? Are we back to special airport corridors and queues for people in Northern Ireland? Where are the customs checks going to be? And the warnings from the government's own Operation Yellowhammer document - warning of medicine and food shortages - what's the latest on that? Arlene Foster said the document was outdated - so where is the up to date assessment - why won't the DUP share it with us? Stephen spoke to BBC NI business and economics editor John Campbell, TUV leader Jim Allister and Jane Morrice is Honorary President of the European Movement in Northern Ireland.