Boris Johnson is ‘ignoramus triggering break-up of UK’, says Patrick Kielty

Former UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson will be remembered as "the ignoramus who triggered the break up of the UK", comedian and presenter Patrick Kielty has said.

Mr Kielty, who was born in Co Down and is the son of a man murdered by loyalist paramilitaries in 1988, was responding on Twitter to Mr Johnson’s latest column in the Daily Telegraph entitled “my plan for a better Brexit”.

Mr Johnson called on the British government to abandon the commitment it made last December to a backstop for the Border and seek to have the issue removed from the Brexit withdrawal agreement.

“Dear Boris Johnson, there is no better Brexit when it comes to the Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland,” he said. “As you still seem bamboozled by all this Paddywackery here’s a few pointers for your next stab in the dark.”

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Mr Kielty pointed out that because of the troubles, “Northern Ireland is nothing like Camden or Westminster”, and that despite the “torturous” process of implementing the Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland “remains a divided society”.

“Thanks to your glorious Brexit vision Northern Ireland will become more divided as some form of economic border checks will become part of daily lives,” he said.

“Your Brexit lies have opened a Pandora’s box for Northern Ireland. It’s one reason why the majority of people in NI voted to remain in the EU (almost as if they knew more about the fragile equilibrium of their politics than you).

“Barely mentioned before Brexit, a border poll is now inevitable thanks to your monumental ignorance.

“When that poll is eventually held the nationalists who were once content being part of a Northern Ireland within the UK and EU will vote to leave the UK to feel as Irish and European as they did before Brexit.

“The poll will be much closer thanks to your Brexit folly and could easily be lost by unionists, breaking up the UK.

“Any break up of the Union will be your fault. The EU is not responsible for your blundering lack of foresight. Like most people in Northern Ireland they were happy with the status quo.

“By the time the penny drops that you can’t preserve the union you want without the one you don’t, it will be too late.

“You will be remembered not as the Churchillian visionary you delude yourself to be but the ignoramus who triggered the break up of the UK.

“If there’s any justice all this will come to pass when you’re prime minister so you can finally swim in the constitutional sewage you’ve created.”