Thread by @tconnellyRTE

Some damning testimony from @alexhallhall, former Brexit counselor at the British Embassy in Washington who resigned in 2019 over having to perpetrate what she saw as increasing disingenuous UK lines on Brexit, esp on NI, once @BorisJohnson took over tnsr.org/2021/10/should…

2/ “They downplayed the increased friction that was likely for businesses trading between the United Kingdom and the E.U. countries, as well as third countries such as the United States.

3/ “But, most damagingly, the talking points also downplayed the consequences of Brexit for the delicate peace process in Northern Ireland, in which the United States was a core stakeholder, having helped to broker the Good Friday Agreement and supported it since then.

4/ “When I was asked to brief American businesses with significant investments in the United Kingdom, I found myself struggling to maintain the line that there would be no harmful consequences for them, even if the United Kingdom left the European Union without any deal at all.

5/ “Colleagues told me that the prevailing atmosphere in Whitehall meant that all civil servants had to be ‘on message,’ and that any points which did not comport with ministers’ preconceived notions were simply rejected.

6/ “One colleague working on NI was nearly in tears as he told me how he simply could not get his minister to register the enormous damage that would be done to the fabric of Northern Ireland, politically and economically, if the UK left the European Union without a deal.

7/ “A low point for me was when I heard a senior British minister openly and offensively, in front of a U.S. audience, dismiss the impact of a ‘No Deal’ Brexit on Irish businesses as just affecting ‘a few farmers with turnips in the back of their trucks.’”