ALISTER Jack thinks it's a great idea, but not all of his colleagues agree.

If reports are to be believed, Boris Johnson's 25-mile tunnel from Scotland to Northern Ireland could be greenlit within weeks.

The idea for the tunnel was floated after Johnson signalled support for a bridge across the Irish Sea in 2018 while challenging Theresa May for leadership of the Conservative Party.

Now it's thought that a 25-mile "Boris Burrow" could be created instead.

Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Wendy is expected to publish interim reports on the feasibility of such an endeavour within the next few weeks.

Modelled on the Channel Tunnel, it would carry cars and lorries as well as rail passengers and run from Stranraer to Larne – skirting to the north of Beaufort's Dyke, the trench in which Second World War munitions were dumped.

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The High-Speed Rail Group (HSRG) has submitted plans to Hendry's review. Its Jim Steer, a former managing director of the Strategic Rail Authority, says the matter "should be looked at very seriously".

He went on: "It sounds crazy now, but before the Channel tunnel was built there was a similar debate.”

Johnson's bridge proposal came after architect Alan Dunlop unveiled his idea for a Scotland-Northern Ireland link in The National, with costs estimated between £8 billion and £10 billion.

Speaking to the Chopper's Politics podcast, Jack, the MP for Stranraer, stated his enthusiasm for such an underwater scheme, saying: "A bridge would be closed for probably 100 days a year with the weather in the Irish Sea."

He said: "My strong inclination would be that he thinks it should be a tunnel because he and I have had conversations about the weather patterns in the Irish Sea and Beaufort's Dyke, and there's a munitions deposit there.”

DUP MP Sammy Wilson told the Sunday Telegraph that the scheme would be practical and symbolic.

Wilson, whose East Antrim seat includes Larne, said: "The important thing is to make sure that we are economically and constitutionally connected – that is far more important than a physical connection. But nevertheless symbolically it would be very important to hear this message.”

The National:

But Tory MP Simon Hoare, chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee, was less impressed, suggesting "the trains could be pulled by an inexhaustible herd of unicorns overseen by stern, officious dodos".

"A PushMePullYou could be the senior guard and Puff the Magic Dragon the inspector," he added, stating: "Let's concentrate on making the Protocol work and put the hallucinogenics down."

Work is already underway on a shorter tunnel in Europe, where Germany and Denmark will get better links through an 11-mile Baltic Sea tunnel.