The heads of the barrister profession on both sides of the Irish border have warned that Brexit is not compatible with the Good Friday Agreement.

Paul McGarry SC, chairman of The Bar of Ireland, and Liam McCollum QC, chairman of The Bar of Northern Ireland, made the remarks at the Annual Bar Conference in London, The Brief reports.

The pair were speaking alongside four other UK legal figures in a panel discussion examining “Brexit and the Bar”.

Mr McGarry told conference delegates that “the Good Friday Agreement and Brexit are incompatible for a number of reasons”.

He said one was the guarantee on free movement in the Good Friday Agreement, which was not compatible with the imposition of a post-Brexit border; another the entitlement of people born in Northern Ireland to Irish citizenship, which would mean a direct route to EU citizenship.

Mr McCollum described it as “an insoluble an issue as you could possibly imagine”, and agreed Brexit would “undermine” the Agreement.

He pointed out that the Agreement could not be amended and would therefore have to be renegotiated.