Jeremy Corbyn meeting members of Derry Chamber of Commerce
LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn is on the second leg of his visit to the North of Ireland.
On Friday morning, Mr Corbyn spoke to business leaders at a breakfast event in Derry.
The event was hosted by Derry Chamber of Commerce.
The president of the chamber, Jennifer McKeever, said that Mr Corbyn was welcomed to “the city at the heart of the Brexit conundrum”.
She said that businesses in the area were being “hugely resilient and pragmatic” about the Brexit challenges ahead but that “patience was wearing thin” two years after the EU referendum.
It is expected that Mr Corbyn will face questions on Labour’s proposed customs union and future access to the single market.
Later on Friday morning, he will visit the border area between Strabane and Lifford.
He will then return to Belfast for a number of private engagements.
On Thursday, Mr Corbyn said that he would take a neutral position on a border poll if he was prime minister.
He also said he would not support a deal that includes a return to a hard border.
The UK and EU have agreed that there will be no hard border, but are at odds on how to achieve that.
A major sticking point is what arrangement will be put in place if the border cannot be solved in an overall deal.
The two sides accept the need for a ‘backstop’ but differ on how it should work.
Mr Corbyn suggested on Thursday that Labour’s proposal for a new comprehensive EU-UK customs union has the potential to prevent communities in the North of Ireland being divided.
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