THE SNP’s Northern Ireland spokesperson says “April 1 has come early in Downing Street” over the PM’s Irish Sea tunnel plan.

Richard Thomson last night slammed Boris Johnson’s team after it emerged that a report on an undersea Stranraer-Larne link could be put before the Prime Minister within weeks.

It’s been suggested that the multi-billion infrastructure project, which is supported by Scotland Secretary Alister Jack, could be greenlit imminently.

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.

Jim Steer, of the High Speed Rail Group, said: “It sounds crazy now, but before the Channel tunnel was built there was a similar debate.”

READ MORE: Alister Jack panned for claim SNP to blame for Boris Johnson's unpopularity

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 £10bn.

Speaking to the Chopper’s Politics podcast, Jack, the MP for Stranraer, stated his enthusiasm for such an underwater scheme, saying: “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: “Symbolically it would be very important to hear this message.” 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” and staffed by Puff the Magic Dragon.

Thomson said: “The UK Government toys with another headline-grabbing distraction but, in reality, a fixed link between Scotland and Northern Ireland will only serve to highlight the competitive disadvantage that Scotland faces thanks to Boris Johnson’s damaging Brexit deal.

“Boris Johnson couldn’t even build a 366 metre bridge across the Thames when he was London Mayor – but thinks we’re going to trust him to deliver one of the most complicated infrastructure projects imaginable.”