DUP playing hardball with Tories
BRITAIN: British Prime Minister Theresa May has been left exposed after the Democratic Unionist Party warned it could scupper her minority government on the eve of last night’s Queen’s Speech.
The Northern Irish party, which has 10 MPS, yesterday ramped up the pressure on May by saying that talks over a deal to prop up her administration were not proceeding ‘‘as expected’’ and cautioning that the party’s support ‘‘cannot be taken for granted’’.
The implicit threat to withhold support for the Queen’s Speech in a House of Commons vote next Friday – the test of the government’s viability – overshadowed May’s plea to voters for a second chance after their rejection of her appeal for a personal mandate.
‘‘The election result was not the one I hoped for, but this government will respond with humility and resolve to the message the electorate sent,’’ she said in a statement released before the publication of a two-year legislative programme.
Efforts to strengthen her grip on power come as:
David Davis, the Brexit secretary, pressed for the appointment of his opposite number Sir Keir Starmer to the Privy Council as part of efforts to bind the Labour Party into the Brexit negotiations. It would allow Starmer to receive sensitive briefings on the talks.
The scale of the legislation needed for a smooth exit was revealed, with at least eight Brexit bills.
Action to reduce energy and insurance bills and scrap rip-off tenancy fees was promised as May redoubled her attempts to secure support from poorer households.
‘‘We will work hard every day to gain the trust and confidence of the British people, making their priorities our priorities,’’ May said. Behind closed doors she was less contrite, however, telling a private meeting of donors that the snap election ‘‘may have saved the United Kingdom’’.
During the meeting she also claimed that the Tories would have won a ‘‘landslide victory’’ in other circumstances.
May is at least five MPS short of a Commons majority and needs support from the DUP to be sure she can govern. Initially the Northern Irish party indicated that a confidence and supply deal would be struck before the Queen’s Speech. Hopes of finalising the deal before yesterday were dashed when DUP sources in Belfast said it was ‘‘certainly not imminent’’.
Talks ‘‘have not proceeded in a way that the DUP would have expected,’’ they added, saying the party ‘‘cannot be taken for granted’’.
While other DUP figures played down the implicit threat as sabrerattling, it underscored May’s vulnerability. She promised to consult, listen and strike a deal with the European Union that ‘‘commands maximum public support’’ but warned that she would ‘‘see Brexit through’’.
With the legislation she needs to transpose EU law on to the British statute books at the mercy of a hung parliament, ministers are seeking to bind Labour into cross-party talks.
Davis has said he wants to be able to brief the shadow Brexit secretary on confidential and sensitive elements of the talks, which formally began on Tuesday. Senior Labour figures want to resist moves that could compromise the party’s room for manoeuvre.
Members of the Privy Council, appointed by the Queen, must swear an oath to ‘‘keep secret all matters . . . treated of in council’’. By convention, the opposition leader is a privy councillor so he can receive national security intelligence. In addition to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the shadow chancellor John Mcdonnell and shadow home secretary Diane Abbott were appointed last year.
– The Times