Dublin Nervous Over UK Conservative Vote Fearing Tougher Irish Border Stance – Ex-Diplomat

Ireland is nervous over the upcoming leadership election in the UK Conservative Party as the next prime minister, probably Boris Johnson, may take a tougher stance on Brexit, particularly, on the Irish border issue, former Irish Ambassador to Canada Ray Bassett told Sputnik on Thursday.

“In terms of [Irish Prime Minister Leo] Varadkar, there’s a degree of nervousness and I think he is right that this is a potentially dangerous time for Ireland — none of the candidates have any real plan when it comes to the backstop … There’s nothing really reasonable, and Boris [Johnson] looks like he is going to win it. So it does look like if it came to the end of October and there was not a deal on the table, he would probably have to go for no deal, given what he has said up till now and the kind of support behind him,” Basset stressed.