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Remain and Leave clash in final EU referendum debate

Remain and Leave campaigners have clashed at the final major EU referendum debate before polls open on Thursday.

The BBC debate took place in front of 6,000 people at Wembley Arena.

Participants included Boris Johnson for Leave, and his successor as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who is backing Remain.

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Fact check: 'Irish border controls would be imposed in case of Brexit'

The Irish Prime Minister said border controls would need to be imposed - including in Belfast and Derry - if the UK left the EU, according to TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady.

Nobody can be sure what would happen to borders between the Republic of Ireland and the UK if Britain left the EU, according to fact-checking organisation Full Fact, analysing the live BBC referendum debate.

Claims that there would or wouldn’t be border controls on the island of Ireland are predictions, not facts, at this stage - even if they come from the Irish Prime Minister.

It essentially depends on whether the UK puts restrictions on EU immigration.

Claims that this would change if the UK left the EU assume that current measures to police the currently open border wouldn’t be enough to handle an influx of EU immigrants coming across it.

If the UK wanted to put restrictions on EU immigration or short visits after leaving, that might generate more illegal cross-border movement. At the moment, police only have to catch unauthorised migrants from non-EU countries.

It’s at least possible that increased pressure on the border force could lead to a demand either for passport checks at the north/south border, or passport checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Northern Irish politicians report that heavier policing at ports and airports, rather than the land border, would be the government's preferred solution.

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