Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has accused the United Kingdom of “chasing unicorns” and said if the country wanted to cancel Brexit, the European Union would welcome it back.
The comments came as the Irish leader, who has been only too eager to help the European Union emphasise the impediments to Brexit created along the Irish-UK border over the past two years, visited Washington D.C. as part of a trip to coincide with St Patrick’s Day.
Adding his voice to the chorus of foreign leaders trying to entice the British government to overturn the democratic will of the British people — including the Czech prime minister, who called on Theresa May to campaign for Britain to remain in the EU in a new referendum campaign yesterday — Varadkar said the United Kingdom would be welcomed back “with open arms” if it changed its mind on Brexit.
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Speaking Wednesday evening during the Brexit votes in the House of Commons, which saw control of the Brexit process all but torn from the hands of the Government by rebel Members of Parliament, Varadkar said that Brexit is “a decision that we deeply regret in Ireland and across Europe”, reports the Irish Journal.
He continued: “If they were ever to change their mind, they would be like the Prodigal Son returning, and we would welcome them with open arms.”
Laying blame on Brexiteers for the collapse of the Brexit process, which has come after two years of negotiations between the British government and the European Union — neither of whom wanted Brexit to happen in the first place — Varadkar said: “I think a lot of people that advocated unicorns have been chasing unicorns for a very long time and as we head into the next few weeks it should be patently obvious to everyone that unicorns only exist in fairytales.”
The Irish prime minister also talked tough on the damage he believed leaving the European Union would do to the United Kingdom, remarking: “[O]bviously that will have a severe impact on the British economy and on the Northern Ireland economy in particular. That’s why you’ve seen the reaction today from British business, from British farmers, Northern Ireland business, Northern Ireland farmers very concerned about what the UK is proposing and the impact that it’s going to have on their economy.”
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Varadkar spoke less about the impact of Brexit on his own country, however, Ireland being a small nation of less than five million people which has an enormous self-interest in keeping the UK tied to the European Union.
Breitbart London reported in January that the nation would be so damaged by Britain leaving the European Union without a deal it would need “mega-money” emergency aid from the European Union to cope.
The agriculture minister of Ireland, for example, may have been caught somewhat off guard when he discussed the enormous extent to which the Irish government needs to keep Britain in the EU.
He said: “There is a high level of awareness of Ireland’s unique exposure to the UK food market. But I think nobody wants to talk about it right now because there is still a hope and expectation that a level of sanity will prevail.
“I think we would get help. It’s all about the level of help… You’re looking at hundreds of millions here. Between the beef industry and the fishing industry we’re talking mega-money.”
Oliver JJ Lane is the editor of Breitbart London — Follow him on Twitter and Facebook
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