{"id":266768,"date":"2025-07-16T14:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T14:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/266768\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T14:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T14:03:14","slug":"border-issues-should-have-been-foreseen-as-former-ni-secretary-julian-smith-hits-out-at-camerons-cavalier-approach-to-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/266768\/","title":{"rendered":"Border issues \u2018should have been foreseen\u2019 as former NI Secretary Julian Smith hits out at Cameron\u2019s cavalier\u2019 approach to Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"

And Mr Smith, who lasted just over six months in the NI role before being sacked by Boris Johnson, said he was \u201cfrustrated but not surprise\u201d at being removed from the job despite his role in securing a return of Stormont in 2020.<\/p>\n

Having been appointed as Secretary of State by Boris Johnson in 2019 Mr Smith, who remains MP for Skipton and Ripon in Yorkshire though called himself 100% Scottish, found himself in the midst of what he called \u201can unforgivable decision\u201d by former Prime Minister David Cameron to call the referendum on leaving the European Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cI joined the Conservative Party because of David Cameron, because he was dynamic, but it was unforgivable that this fundamental question was put to the British people when you have a whole range of issues, not least the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland,\u201d he told the BBC\u2019s Red Lines podcast.<\/p>\n

Now on the back benches, one of the few supporters of Theresa May\u2019s government to have survived, he\u2019s highly critical of Lord Cameron\u2019s approach, calling the former Prime Minister \u201cextremely cavalier\u201d in his approach to Brexit.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Julian Smith<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (the referendum) was put to the British people as if it was some sort of Eton game,\u201d he said, referencing the fact that Mr Cameron was one of several at the heart of the UK government who had been educated at the famous private school.<\/p>\n

After losing the referendum vote, David Cameron resigned and left piecing it together to others, among them Mr Smith who was a key figure in Teresa May\u2019s doomed government, serving as chief whip under her leadership from 2016-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should have been a proposition which outlined how both answers, yes and no, would be addressed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIssues such as how to maintain an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland should have been foreseen. Instead the UK was led into years of contemplating an answer to that question.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty disastrous period. It has led to many of the challenges today where concerns over immigration are unaddressed and a polarisation of politics. That may have come anyway, but it was really accelerated by that period from 2017 onwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

David Cameron, former UK prime minister and foreign secretary, has resigned from Rishi Sunak\u2019s top team (Lucy North\/PA)<\/p>\n

Theresa May resigned in 2019 due to an inability to pass Brexit legislation – three times the votes went against her government in the Commons, During that time he had built up a relationship with the DUP, who had secured their \u2018confidence and supply\u2019 arrangement to prop up government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe DUP relationship was very helpful in one of the big factors – keeping Jeremy Corbyn out of power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were positive to work with, but it was obviously a very difficult time when you had a very small party that was critical to the stability at Westminster and so influential. On a personal basis I found them straightforward to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Boris Johnson took over as Prime Minister Smith was appointed to his first Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and was instrumental in breaking three years of political inactivity as Stormont resumed in January 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure I would get a job,\u201d he said, having been a key figure in supporting Teresa May.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was delighted to get the role,\u201d he continued, admitting days in Northern Ireland was the first time he had dealt with Sinn Fein politicians.<\/p>\n

\"Theresa<\/p>\n

Theresa May (Hannah McKay\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t take their seats at Westminster,\u201d he said. \u201cProbably they could have had the votes to influence things (over Brexit)<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I found Sinn Fein to be a very driven and organised party. I find what happened in the past abhorrent and I disagree with their goals, but I found their politicians straightforward to deal with and developed good working relationships with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

That led to Stormont returning in January 2020. A month later, Julian Smith was out of the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite frustrating,\u201d he said. \u201cThe restoration of Stormont was one of the first successes of the Boris Johnson government. I had pushed back in cabinet about the idea of a \u2019no deal\u2019 Brexit. Looking back, if I had been Boris, I\u2019d have been irritated by that too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt I could have assisted him more as Prime Minister. But no, it wasn\u2019t unexpected he decided to get rid of me as I\u2019d served Teresa May.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the potential for a border poll, Smith said he did not think the conditions were \u201cright\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at all the other things that need to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cConstitutional discussion is basically an excuse for not dealing with these priority issues. Don\u2019t let politicians in Northern Ireland off the hook on dealing with social mobility, dealing with the health service, revenue raising<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot in any world see a border poll with interest from Ireland, acceptance from the UK. We\u2019re better focusing on making people\u2019s lives better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And Mr Smith, who lasted just over six months in the NI role before being sacked by Boris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[5109,802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,17698,16,15,23146],"class_list":{"0":"post-266768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-boris-johnson","9":"tag-brexit","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-mark-bain","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-windsor-framework"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114863289585817339","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}