“Both the U.K. and the E.U. have made a sincere commitment to the people of Northern Ireland: there will be no hard border. Equally, as a U.K. government, we could not countenance a future in which a border was drawn in the Irish Sea, separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.”

British former politician

Sir David Roy Lidington is a British former politician, born in 1956. He served as the Member of Parliament for Aylesbury from 1992 to 2019 and was a member of the Conservative Party. From 2018 to 2019, he served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office. During that period, he was often described as Theresa May's de facto deputy prime minister, reflecting his senior role in government.