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JEREMY CORBYN wrapped up his two-day tour of Northern Ireland in Derry today, where he urged parties to re-form a government and see off the prospect of a post-Brexit border.
The Labour leader walked the Lifford bridge between Northern Ireland and the Republic on Friday, close to the Co Tyrone town of Strabane.
Addressing a meeting of business leaders in Derry, Mr Corbyn said: “Please, to the parties in Stormont: you have to come together to re-form a government there.
“It is impossible to go through a period so crucial as Brexit negotiations without a voice for Northern Ireland being made at the table.
“I hope they understand that message.
“There is to be a transition period but the transition period is not unlimited, that we well know, and crucial decisions are going to be made in the next three months.”
A frontier would seriously damage Northern Ireland’s north-west, including the life chances of those already suffering from excessive unemployment, he added.
Mr Corbyn supports a customs arrangement with the EU to protect trade and ensure no regulatory barriers after Brexit.
He said: “Any kind of border, physical border, virtual reality border, technological border, whatever, would be very damaging to the economy.”
He claimed that Theresa May’s government was making a mess of the negotiations and was too divided and weak to get a good Brexit deal.
The power-sharing government at Stormont collapsed more than a year ago and has not sat for months following a dispute over a botched green energy scheme.