JEREMY CORBYN wrapped up his two-day tour of Northern Ireland in Derry today, where he urged parties to re-form a government and see off the prospect of a post-Brexit border.

The Labour leader walked the Lifford bridge between Northern Ireland and the Republic on Friday, close to the Co Tyrone town of Strabane.

Addressing a meeting of business leaders in Derry, Mr Corbyn said: “Please, to the parties in Stormont: you have to come together to re-form a government there.

“It is impossible to go through a period so crucial as Brexit negotiations without a voice for Northern Ireland being made at the table.

“I hope they understand that message.

“There is to be a transition period but the transition period is not unlimited, that we well know, and crucial decisions are going to be made in the next three months.”

A frontier would seriously damage Northern Ireland’s north-west, including the life chances of those already suffering from excessive unemployment, he added.

Mr Corbyn supports a customs arrangement with the EU to protect trade and ensure no regulatory barriers after Brexit.

He said: “Any kind of border, physical border, virtual reality border, technological border, whatever, would be very damaging to the economy.”

He claimed that Theresa May’s government was making a mess of the negotiations and was too divided and weak to get a good Brexit deal.

The power-sharing government at Stormont collapsed more than a year ago and has not sat for months following a dispute over a botched green energy scheme.