Ditch North backstop if you want support of DUP, May warned
THERESA May has been told to ditch the special deal for Northern Ireland if she wants the DUP’s support to pass her Brexit deal through the House of Commons.
Yesterday, the EU and the UK reached an agreement in principle, paving the way for the deal to be signed off on at Sunday’s European Council summit.
But even if the withdrawal text is approved in Brussels this weekend, it still has to survive a vote in the House of Commons, where it currently has no majority.
Enter the DUP, whose confidence and supply deal with the Conservative Party was tested this week as it withheld crucial votes on the budget, as a warning to the UK prime minister over Brexit.
This week’s EU-UK declaration on the future relationship includes a vague commitment to exploring ‘alternative arrangements’ to the Northern Ireland customs alignment with the EU, commonly known as ‘the backstop’. DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson has now demanded that these vague words
‘Alternative arrangements’
be used in the final agreement.
The DUP doesn’t want any special deal for the North and wants it to be treated like any other part of the UK. ‘I would say to the prime minister that if she wants to have the support of my party... then we need to see an end of the backstop and those alternative arrangements put in place,’ Mr Donaldson said.
But Mrs May yesterday insisted the backstop is not the ‘automatic route’ for avoiding a hard border.
The view from the EU’s side is that the new language will give the UK prime minister a better chance of passing the Brexit deal, which is opposed on almost all sides of the House of Commons.
The alternative arrangements could include technological solutions, such as the so-called ‘max fac’ proposals, or a future trade deal so that a border won’t be necessary.
Mrs May told the Commons yesterday: ‘None of us want to see the backstop being used.
‘The best way to ensure the backstop is not used is to get the future relationship into place. There are alternative arrangements and we will be working on those alternative arrangements.’
But she also reiterated her commitment to avoiding a hard border. ‘What is important is that we have, within the document, means in which we can guarantee to the people of Northern Ireland... that trade across the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland can continue as it does today,’ Mrs May said.
Yesterday’s declaration on the future relationship also limits the provision on extending the transition period to 2022. This could put significant pressure on both sides to resolve the future trade deal ahead of the next UK general election that same year.
Yesterday, Fianna Fáil’s European Affairs spokesman Seán Haughey lashed out at the DUP over its opposition to the deal.
‘It is difficult to comprehend the DUP’s opposition to this agreement, apparently on ideological grounds,’ he said.