War of words
Party leaders clash over Theresa May’s visit to Northern Ireland
Jon Tonge: PM should focus her energy on winning support of MPs
Ivan Little: Foster fends off ‘bribe’ jibe and insists she can’t be ‘bought’
ARLENE Foster and Theresa May were engaged in a war of words yesterday as the Prime Minister flew into Belfast on a whistlestop tour to secure support for her Brexit deal.
The under-pressure Conservative leader is trying to build up public support for her Brexit deal ahead of a key vote in the House of Commons on December 11.
While Mrs May’s withdrawal agreement enjoys the support of the business community, many farmers, Sinn Fein and the smaller parties at Stormont, she faces trenchant opposition from the DUP — the only Northern Ireland party with votes in the Commons.
The PM’s decision to appeal directly to the public above the heads of the 10 DUP MPs who prop up her government appeared to antagonise her Commons allies yesterday.
The DUP told her to “dump her PR plans” and “instead work on finding a better way forward”. It suggested that removing the backstop could ensure their support for the rest of the deal.
DUP leader Arlene Foster described Mrs May’s tour, which started earlier in Wales, as “propaganda”, a claim the PM rejected.
Speaking after a meeting in Stormont House to discuss the withdrawal agreement with Mrs May, who also met the smaller parties, Mrs Foster said the Prime Minister was “always welcome to Northern Ireland”.
But the former first minister added: “However the withdrawal agreement, in its current form, is unacceptable and she will not persuade the DUP to support it.
“There are a growing number of voices right across the House of Commons who oppose the withdrawal agreement. They see good parts but they want the backstop to be binned.”
Mrs May faces an uphill battle to get her deal through Parliament with Labour and many of her own MPs calling for it to be renegotiated. Mrs Foster said that with no enthusiasm amongst MPs, the deal “seems destined to be rejected” in the Commons vote.
“We have urged the Prime Minister to dump her PR plans for the withdrawal agreement and instead work on finding a better way forward. If the backstop was removed, then consensus could be achieved,” she said.
“There is another way. This is not a binary choice. We need to explore that third way.”
The Tory leader’s first stop was Queen’s University, Belfast where she met with business, education and religious representatives. She urged MPs to act in the national interest in the December 11 vote — a message clearly aimed at her erstwhile DUP allies. Civic representatives in Belfast also gave Mrs May the clear message to move on and develop the future, she said. The PM said: “I will be talking to my DUP colleagues, as I will be talking to colleagues in the House of Commons and across the House of Commons, of the importance of this vote for the UK, for the future of the UK, for the future of jobs for their constituents, for the future security of their constituents, this is a deal that protects those issues but also delivers on the Brexit vote.”
She added: “The alternative is more uncertainty and more division, and that is a very clear message that we have got here in Northern Ireland but have had elsewhere as well, that people do not want to return to uncertainty and division.”
She said her draft agreement with the EU delivered on the Brexit vote in a fashion that protected jobs, livelihood and security. The message I have clearly heard here today from across the board, from the voluntary sector, from young people, from businesses, from the cultural sector, from academics, is the importance of that certainty and the importance of Parliament accepting that deal so we can move on to develop our future.”
Asked about the use of the border backstop, she said: “What arrangements we put in place in the UK for determining whether there should be any regulatory divergence is actually a matter for us. There already is regulatory divergence today between Northern Ireland and Great Britain in some limited areas. We have that regulatory divergence today. We are one UK, but there is an acceptance of the particular position of Northern Ireland in the regulations as they are applied today.”