Foster tells May: get a better deal

But DUP leader also praises the PM’s hard work and calls her genuine However, ex-party chief Peter Robinson warns Tory supply pact has limited shelf life

ARLENE Foster last night told Theresa May to fight for a better Brexit deal — or lose the support of the DUP.

Speaking ahead of today’s party conference, Mrs Foster

(right) said that if the Prime Minister managed to push the current plan through Parlia- ment, “then of course we will have to revisit the confidence and supply agreement”.

Meanwhile, former leader Peter Robinson has backed the pact with the Tories, but warned his former colleagues to remember it has “a shelf life”.

ARLENE Foster yesterday warned Theresa May that she risks losing DUP support if she presses ahead with the current Brexit deal.

Speaking ahead of her party conference, Mrs Foster called on the Prime Minister to ditch the Withdrawal Agreement or face the end of the Westminster pact.

She told BBC Radio Ulster’s Inside Politics: “If she is successful in Parliament, and there is no evidence that she is going to be successful in Parliament, then of course we will have to revisit the confidence and supply agreement.

“That agreement was about giving national stability, it was acting in the national interest and delivering on Brexit.

“If this is not going to deliver on Brexit then of course that brings us back to the situation of looking at the confidence and supply agreement, but we are not there yet and we are not going to jump ahead until we see what happens in Parliament.”

Later today, Mrs Foster will deliver her leader’s speech to the DUP annual conference in Belfast.

Her remarks will come under intense scrutiny, after a torrid week in which her party has faced an unprecedented level of public criticism from business and farming interests, concerned about their potential rejection of Mrs May’s controversial Withdrawal Agreement proposals.

In spite of tensions with the Government, Chancellor Phillip Hammond addressed a pre-conference dinner last night.

The gathering will be addressed later today by former minister and arch-Brexiteer Boris Johnson. But Mrs Foster is expected to tell her audience that the proposed Withdrawal Agreement is not in the long-term interests of Northern

Ireland.

She will say: “I know that there are many in the business community in Northern Ireland who are frustrated with the pace of negotiations and the politics around it and who simply seek certainty. I understand their position.

“They have been clear that they would prefer what is currently on the table rather than a no-deal outcome.

“But for us we cannot wish away the fact that the draft withdrawal agreement contains arrangements that are not in Northern Ireland’s long-term economic or strategic interests.

“Northern Ireland would remain part of the European Union’s customs code and as things stand we would be sowing the seeds of inevitable economic divergence from our largest market.”

Mrs Foster will also point to the “contradictions” in the agreement, telling delegates: “On the one hand, we are told the backstop would be the best of both worlds and on the other we are told it is unlikely to be needed.

“Therein lies one of the many contradictions at the heart of this draft withdrawal agree- ment.” Mrs Foster will argue that the business community has accepted a false choice propagated by government spin doctors between Mrs May’s unacceptable deal and the bogey man of a World Trade Organisation Brexit, which does not require a formal exit deal with the EU.

She will say: “The choice is not between this deal and no deal despite what the Government spin machine may say.

“The reality is that if we are to secure a better outcome than is currently on offer then the only option is to look beyond this current draft withdrawal agreement and work in the time ahead for an improved outcome.”

The conference will also hear from Nigel Dodds, the party’s Westminster leader, who will deliver a blistering attack on the Irish backstop proposals and call on Mrs May to ditch the plans.

He is expected to state that “the confidence and supply deal is a two-way street”. The Government’s commitments under it are clear… including on Brexit.

“Commitments freely entered into must be delivered and if they are not, then clearly, as we have shown, there are consequences.”

He will add: “Rather than waste any more time putting forward false choices, we need the government to get on with securing a better deal.”

Mr Dodds will describe the Agreement as “a pitiful and pathetic place for the United Kingdom”.

“Hundreds of pages are devoted to a backstop which will bind the United Kingdom into taking the rules of the EU with no right to leave and no end date: a backstop that will put Northern Ireland under swathes of EU laws with no say for anyone in Belfast or London….a trade border down the Irish Sea: a backstop that keeps a continuing role for the ECJ: a backstop that deletes all reference to para 50 of the Joint Report giving the final say to Northern Ireland.

“Prime Minister – bin the backstop!” he will say.