Boris ‘wants to build giant roundabout under the Isle of Man’
The prime minister is said to be backing a plan that would see three tunnels meeting at a roundabout under the island dubbed 'Douglas Junction'.
The prime minister has hopes of building an ‘underground roundabout’ beneath the Isle of Man to connect Britain to Northern Ireland, Whitehall sources claim.
Under the alleged plans, the transport network would see as many three tunnels heading out from England and Scotland in a bid to iron out post-Brexit trade issues across the UK.
They would connect at a roundabout named ‘Douglas Junction’, after the island’s capital, before heading out across the Irish Sea beneath the Isle of Man, reports The Sunday Times.
Several senior Whitehall sources are said to have dismissed the roundabout plan as ’round the bend’ but it is so beloved by Boris Johnson that ‘it cannot die’.
The latest plans come amid talks of a 25-mile underwater tunnel dubbed ‘Boris’ Burrow’ connecting Britain and Northern Ireland.
Chairman of Network Rail, Peter Hendy, is currently studying the route and is expected to publish his findings within weeks.
Running from Stranraer in Scotland to Larne in Northern Ireland, ministers hope the tunnel could help resolve some of the pressures seen at the Irish border since the UK left the EU.
But the route would have to cross Beaufort’s Dyke – a 32-mile trench where around 1.5 million tonnes of World War Two ammunition was dumped – tunnel the route impractical.
Ministers are said to have instead suggested three tunnels heading out from Stranraer, Liverpool and Heysham, in Lancashire, to meet at the so-called Douglas Junction, before heading onto Larne.
A source told The Times: ‘Everyone knows Boris wants to do this so people were asked to look at how.’
However, another source said while some senior aides describe the plan as ‘bats**t’, they acknowledge it as a ‘Fuhrer bunker project’.
One told the paper: ‘Just as Hitler moved around imaginary armies in the dying days of the Third Reich, so the No 10 policy unit is condemned to keep looking at this idea, which exists primarily in the mind of the PM.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted No 10 for comment.
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