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The agreement includes a memorandum of understanding between London and Dublin guaranteeing reciprocal rights to social security, health services and education in Ireland and the UK after Brexit. It also confirms the rights of the two countries’ citizens’ to work and vote in local and national parliamentary elections in each other’s jurisdiction.
The move to continue arrangements — known as the common travel area — that have been in place since Irish independence in the 1920s was welcomed by Eurosceptic MPs as a sign that bilateral accords can help ease tensions over the UK-Irish border.
Those tensions have become the biggest stumbling block to Theresa May’s Brexit deal, since both Eurosceptic Conservative MPs and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist party object to “backstop” provisions to ensure there is no hard border. This has forced the UK prime minister to look instead for support from the opposition Labour party.
The backstop, which is intended to prevent a hard border if all other options fail, is opposed by Brexiters who say it could trap the entire UK in a “temporary” customs union with the EU after Britain leaves the bloc.
“[The deal] is a sensible reaffirmation of the status quo and a reminder of the fictional nature of the scare stories,” said Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair of the European Research Group of pro-hard Brexit Tory MPs.
Mark Francois, deputy chair of the ERG, said: “This agreement shows that, with political will, it is possible to maintain perfectly normal relations with the Republic of Ireland after Brexit and therefore why the dreaded backstop has really been unnecessary from the word go.”
Others, however, highlighted that the agreement covered movement of people, not goods and services — the most contentious issue affecting the border once the UK has left the EU. [...]
Full article on Financial Times (subscription required)