Brexit: Leo Varadkar says no guarantee of another delay

MPs should not assume the EU will grant another Brexit delay if Parliament does not back the new deal, Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar has said.

Any extension requires the approval of all 27 EU leaders.

Mr Varadkar said the new Brexit deal agreed on Thursday was the EU's final offer and the only plan B is no deal.

He also said if the deal was passed "the Queen will still be the Queen, the pound will still be the pound, Northern Ireland will still be part of the UK".

His comments came as the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said it was encouraging Conservative MPs to vote down Boris Johnson's new deal on Saturday.

MPs are due to decide on the deal during a special sitting of Parliament, in what is expected to be a knife-edge vote.

Speaking at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday, the taoiseach accepted that the new deal carries a theoretical risk of a hard Irish border some time in the future.

The deal would result in Northern Ireland continuing to follow those EU rules necessary to prevent a hard border, but the Stormont assembly could vote to stop following those rules.

Mr Varadkar said there was an "outside chance" that could happen in the latter half of the next decade but he was confident it would not.

"If it's a risk we're taking it's one of democracy," he said.

Mr Varadkar also suggested he was convinced of a need for Stormont's consent during his meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson in England just over a week ago.

Mr Varadkar said there had been "enormous solidarity for Ireland" throughout the Brexit negotiations.

The issue of the Irish border has been the most contentious throughout the talks and the taoiseach said he had considered whether other EU leaders would put pressure on him to change his position on the matter in order to secure a deal with the UK.

"As things went on the more and more I realised that wasn't going to be the case - that was a concern we didn't need to have," he added.

"It was never an anti-British thing but obviously if one country was leaving and other countries were staying there would be solidarity among the 27."

Mr Varadkar also said the Good Friday peace agreement assures the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, that it stays in the UK until such a time as, if ever, the majority of people in NI decide otherwise.

"The fact there may be differences between Great Britain and Northern Ireland does not undermine the constitutional position in my view," he said.

"Northern Ireland has its own legal system, different education system, has lots of different laws. That's a reflection of devolution and autonomy.

"If this agreement is ratified and implemented, the Queen will still be the Queen, the pound will still be the pound - Northern Ireland will still be part of the UK."

However, the DUP's deputy leader Nigel Dodds said that if Mr Varadkar thought unionism was "just about red post boxes" he was either "ill-informed or just wanted to be offensive".

"A new trade barrier will have been erected between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom without the consent of anyone who lives here," he said.

"Trade borders have always run to the core of any nation.

"Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom therefore there should be unfettered trade within the boundaries of the United Kingdom."