Bertie Ahern says PM’s Brexit speech played to the gallery

Teresa May played to the gallery in her keynote Brexit speech on Tuesday and so far it is going down well, according to former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Mr Ahern described the prime minister’s delivery and the content of her speech as good, in that it had made her point of view clear. But he said the tone was similar to Margaret Thatcher’s famous “out, out, out” speech. “Some of the script writers from the old days must have been there.”

He warned the Brexit negotiations were going to be very difficult after Ms May chose the “hardest line envisaged by anyone”.

In her speech to foreign diplomats at Lancaster House in London, Ms May confirmed the UK would leave the single market after Brexit and ruled out full membership of the customs union.

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She said customs controls on the Border are likely to return post-Brexit. However, she promised to work with the Government to make such controls as “frictionless” as possible. She also said retaining the Common Travel Area between Britain and Ireland was a key objective in upcoming negotiations.

Mr Ahern claimed that Ms May faced no opposition from the British Labour Party, saying that Jeremy Corbyn “changes his mind every time you see him”.

What Boris does best

Mr Ahern also said British foreign secretary Boris Johnson was being disingenuous in his claims that there were countries “lining up” to do trade deals with the UK. “Boris is doing what Boris does best – a comedy show,” he said

When Britain leaves the EU, he said, it will have to apply to join the World Trade Organisation before it can commence any trade deal negotiations.

“There are already 53 trade deals between the EU and the WTO, so the UK will be starting without those,” Mr Ahern told Pat Kenny on Newstalk radio.

He also said UK universities had done very well from the EU Innovation Fund and that colleges in Northern Ireland will now also lose other funds from the EU.

“Almost 10 per cent of GDP in Northern Ireland comes from the EU,” he said. “In her speech, not once did she mention that displaced funds would come from the exchequer instead.”