PM May, DUP strike deal for coalition govt
LONDON :
The minority Theresa May government on Monday agreed a coalition deal worth over 1 billion pounds with a Northern Ireland-based party, prompting furious accusations of throwing taxpayers’ money to stay in power.
The fine print of the deal with the Democratic Unionist Party suggests the actual figure promised may be closer to 2 billion pounds initially sought by its tough negotiators for health, education, infrastructure and other projects in the trouble-torn region.
The deal prompted fury from Wales and elsewhere. Carwyn Jones (Labour), First Minister in Wales, said: “Today’s deal represents a straight bung to keep a weak prime minister and a faltering government in office…It is outrageous that the prime minister believes she can secure her own political future by throwing money at Northern Ireland whilst completely ignoring the rest of the UK”.
“However, the UK government are not the only ones with questions to answer today. It appears that the DUP have given the Tories the go-ahead to legislate how they please on Brexit, which could include taking powers and resources away from the devolved administrations. This is a short-term fix which will have far-reaching and destabilising consequences”.
The Tories won 318 seats in the 650-member House of Lords in the June 8 election, falling short of the required majority mark of 326; the DUP won 10 seats.