SCOTTISH police will be ‘top of the list’ to be despatched to the border in Ireland to combat IRA dissidents under a No-Deal Brexit it has emerged.

Under contingency plans by the UK Government about 300 officers would be deployed ahead of colleagues from England and Wales to support members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Calum Steele, of the Scottish Police Federation, raised concerns over the welfare of officers deployed to Northern Ireland as they do not carry arms and do not have the same level of counter terrorism training. Rank and file PSNI members routinely carry guns.

Steele told the Sunday Times “The simple reality is that our officers are not armed when they go to Northern Ireland and are not trained to the same level of terrorism awareness as officers there.

“They are less able to identify threats as immediately as those officers in the theatre as they don’t have the same training in counter-terrorism activity.”