Europe Minister Thomas Byrne has said he hopes Liz Truss will be “her own person” on issues related to Brexit if she becomes British prime minister despite the “extreme Euro-scepticism” of her supporters.
The two Conservative leadership candidates Ms Truss - who is believed to be the frontrunner - and Rishi Sunak were in Belfast last week where they restated their commitment to making sure the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill becomes law.
Ms Truss - who introduced the Bill in parliament - defended the legislation as “absolutely legal” and necessary “to restore the primacy of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement”.
The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which is making its way through parliament, will give the British government the power to scrap unilaterally parts of the protocol, the part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement that avoided a hard border on the island of Ireland by placing a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea.
Mr Byrne, the Fianna Fáil Minister of State for European Affairs said on Sunday that it’s “difficult to know” if either candidate for the Tory party leadership job would have a different approach to departing prime minister Boris Johnson.
In an interview with Newstalk Radio’s On the Record programme, Mr Byrne said when Ms Truss became UK foreign secretary the Irish Government had felt there was “a new broom in town” and things would be done differently.
However, he said “we found that things simply weren’t happening”, that nobody wanted controversial talks during the Northern Ireland Assembly elections and that “the British leadership election hasn’t exactly helped”.
He added: “The British still have legal obligations, they still have to do what they said they would do.
“It’s no doubt its in their economic interest and that I think is becoming clearer all the time. They don’t want a trade war with the EU. We certainly don’t want a trade war with Britain. But at the end of the day they will have to decide not to ratchet things up.”
He said Ms Truss has “shown herself to be pragmatic over the years”, pointing to her previous opposition to Brexit.
Mr Byrne said he does not think the door is closed for a reset in relations between the Irish and British governments despite Ms Truss’s involvement in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.
Asked by presenter Gavan Reilly if his comments reflect more hope than expectation Mr Byrne said: “The evidence of the leadership election doesn’t give you huge comfort in terms of where the debates are at...
“We really don’t have a huge amount to go on except that people who’ve expressed I suppose, extreme Euro-scepticism, are backing Liz Truss predominantly.
“I would hope that she would be her own person and I think we have reason to believe that she will be her own person.
“Everybody who takes that office becomes their own person and realises that they there is a greater weight than just the day-to-day politics of the job.”
Mr Byrne added: “In terms of us, the Irish government, there will always be an open door to really good relations with Britain”.
