NEARLY €1.1 million worth UK taxpayers’ money was spent on a study commissioned by Boris Johnson which found it would be too expensive to build a bridge or tunnel between Scotland and the North.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said the research into the feasibility of a fixed link cost £896,681 – just shy of €1.1 million.

Network Rail chairman Peter Hendy led the investigation, which found that a bridge would cost €403 billion, while a tunnel would require a budget of around €251 billion.

His report concluded that the project “would be impossible to justify” as “the benefits could not possibly outweigh the costs”.

In addition to the huge expense, the inquiry also noted that the necessary work would be incredibly challenging.

The report described how Beaufort’s Dyke – an underwater trench on the most direct route between Scotland and Northern Ireland – would need to be “carefully surveyed” due to a million tons of unexploded munitions being dumped there between the First World War and the 1970s.

Johnson previously talked up the creation of a fixed link but accepted the conclusion of the report.

The research was carried out alongside a wider review of connectivity in the UK, which cost €1.32 million.