Boris Johnson investigated bridge between Scotland and Ireland

Boris Johnson has revived the idea of building a bridge between Scotland and Ireland to solve the Irish backstop impasse.

The bridge-tunnel between Denmark and Sweden has been an inspiration for the bridge. Picture: Getty Images.

The British civil service has prepared plans for Boris Johnson to build a bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland, it has emerged.

Documents leaked to Channel 4 News showed that the Treasury and the Department for Transport has been asked to analyse the costs and risks.

The idea of a bridge was mooted by Mr Johnson last year. However, a government source told The Times that the idea was not under consideration at present and the papers had been prepared by the civil service during the Conservative leadership election in case a new prime minister wanted to push ahead with it.

Alan Dunlop, visiting professor of architecture at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and the University of Liverpool, has drawn up two sets of plans on which any proposal is likely to be based.

One is a crossing from Larne, Co Antrim, to Portpatrick in Dumfries and Galloway, costing about £20 billion. The other bridge would link the Mull of Kintyre and Torr Head in Antrim at a cost of up to £15 billion. In his note to officials, Mr Johnson wanted to know “the risks around the project”, which would probably include “WW2 munitions in the Irish Sea”, Channel 4 News reported.

The Democratic Unionist Party, which has supported the minority Conservative administration since Theresa May lost her majority in 2017, believes that a bridge could break the Brexit impasse by removing the need for a border in the Irish Sea.

The idea has found favour with the Scottish National Party. Michael Russell, the Scottish government’s constitutional relations secretary, told the Republic of Ireland’s upper house joint committee on European Union affairs in February last year that a bridge would be a “great idea”.

At the time, the bridge-tunnel between Denmark and Sweden was seen as an inspiration.

The Times reported in November that Karen Bradley, then Northern Ireland secretary, was open to a feasibility study. “Government regularly commissions work to examine the feasibility of projects,” a government spokesman said. “During the leadership campaign candidates spoke about a number of issues, which resulted in No 10 commissions ahead of a new prime minister taking over.”

This PM has made no secret of his support for infrastructure projects that increase connectivity for people and particularly those that strengthen the Union.”

The Times