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An “a la carte” Brexit reset is not on the table, the deputy prime minister of Ireland has warned as Sir Keir Starmer made his first official visit to the UK’s nearest neighbour.
The prime minister travelled to Dublin on Saturday to meet Taoiseach Simon Harris ahead of the England football team’s match against the Republic of Ireland.
Just hours before his arrival, the tánaiste said that the EU wanted to see an improved EU-UK relationship, but the UK could not “cherry pick” new terms.
Micheál Martin also blamed Brexit for the deterioration in relations between the UK and Ireland.
Speaking to reporters at the British-Irish Association conference in Oxford on Friday, Mr Martin said that while the EU wants a “good and warm relationship” with the UK, it would not offer an “a la carte” menu from which Sir Keir can pick and choose.
“We would like to have an ease of trading relationships. But it has to be mutually beneficial,” he added.
One area Mr Martin addressed directly was a review of the sanitary and phytosanitary rules under the existing Brexit deal,which he said made “absolute sense”.
He said: “Everybody talks about being in favour of reducing red tape and bureaucracy around trade.
“I think there are easy wins here. But it’s not for me to, sort of, be telling the British government what it should aim for, what it should go for. It has to assess what it can do within its political realities.”
Irish premier Simon Harris wished Sir Keir “a hundred thousand welcomes” as the two leaders met at Farmleigh House in Dublin.
Mr Harris, who described Sir Keir as his friend, said: “It’s a really great honour to host you here today on your first official visit to Ireland as Prime Minister.”
He added: “We both said we wish to really place British-Irish relations on a new path and I really appreciate the time that you’ve given to us since taking office, and I’ve tried to respond in kind.
“We obviously had a call within hours of you being in Downing Street, we had a very productive meeting in Chequers in July, and I think today we’re here at Dublin to probably try to flesh out what a reset actually looks like, and what it looks like in a practical sense for our citizens on both islands.”
Mr Harris said a reset in relations had to be embedded in “peace and prosperity, mutual respect and friendship”.
He said their “most solemn duty” as leaders of the UK and Irish governments was as co-guarantors of the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Sir Keir, whose visit to Ireland is the first by a UK prime minister in five years, said it is the “moment for reset” of relations between the two nations.
The prime minister added: “It’s a pleasure to be here, to have this opportunity that we will take to renew the friendship between our two countries.
“That reset, I think, can be meaningful, it can be deep.
“Of course, it covers the relationship between our two countries. Obviously it has to cover the Good Friday Agreement and I take very seriously our joint role in relation to that.”
Sir Keir said meeting Mr Harris twice within his first nine weeks in office as Prime Minister shows a “real intention” to reset relationships to the “great benefit” of both the UK and Ireland.
The PM and Taoiseach also met Irish business leaders from companies including Accenture, Keelings and Primark, to encourage further trade and investment.
Mr Harris was the first international leader hosted by Sir Keir in the UK following the July election, in a bid to foster the close relationship.
Both leaders will attend the football tie, which kicks off at 5.00pm on Saturday.
