DUP: ‘Boris isn’t a real unionist... and we want Brazil to train in Belfast!’
TORY leadership rivals Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab were last night blamed by Theresa May’s allies for dashing her hopes of a Brexit deal with the DUP.
They claimed a last-minute accord fell through because of doubts among the DUP about whether Mr Johnson and Mr Raab were ‘really unionists’.
A senior cabinet minister told the MoS that the two men had met the DUP as Mrs May desperately tried to persuade the party’s 10 MPs to add their crucial support to her deal.
But the minister – a close ally of Mrs May – said the DUP had suspicions about how strongly Mr Johnson and Mr Raab really felt about the Union.
The May ally suggested that the DUP had doubts over how strongly either man would defend the North if they became prime minister. He said: ‘One of the things that put the DUP off is that they met Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab and decided that they were not really unionists.’
The backing of the DUP is vital to Mrs May getting her Brexit plan over the line. But the party has held firm against it, with Nigel Dodds saying: ‘I would stay in the EU rather than risk Northern Ireland’s position. That’s how strongly I feel about the Union.’
Mr Dodds has raised fears of Northern Ireland being reduced to a separate status from the rest of the UK because of the backstop. However, there were also reports that DUP had been split 7-3 in favour of backing Mrs May’s deal but maintained a united front to oppose it.
Last night, allies of Mr Johnson and Mr Raab dismissed the DUP’s claims.
It has also emerged the DUP demanded as part of its negotiations with Mrs May that footballers from Brazil and Argentina should be based in Belfast if a joint British and Irish bid to host the 2030 World Cup is successful. Sources say they made a series of demands, including that the South American players should have their training bases in the city. A source close to the DUP said: ‘We want Brazil in particular because they have a cult following in the province. ‘It is something we would have asked for anyway – but the fact they need our votes doesn’t do any harm.’ A UK government source said the DUP’s stance in wanting to discuss where the successors to Brazilian star Neymar will train in 11 years’ time showed just how ‘exasperating the entire process has been’.