Labour want figures for all deals struck between DUP and Tories
CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond has been urged to publish the costs of any deals made with the DUP to prop up a Tory government.
Talks are under way between the Tories and the Northern Ireland party over a potential alliance as Theresa May needs their 10 MPs to govern after her majority was wiped out in the General Election.
However Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell has raised concerns over reports the DUP want to end airport tax on visitors to Northern Ireland, which generated around £90m in 2015/16, according to HMRC estimates. Abolishing Air Passenger Duty (APD) is one of the ARLENE Foster’s leadership of the DUP remains a stumbling block that could scupper crunch talks to end a power-sharing stalemate in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein has warned.
Declan Kearney, the party’s chairman, said a DUP focus on Ms Foster’s future role at Stormont “is completely misdirected and premature”.
Referring to financial controversies which helped tumble the Executive earlier this year, including the ‘cash for ash’ scandal linked to Ms Foster, Mr Kearney said they continue to overshadow the region.
“That is why Sinn Fein stood the DUP leader down from her position last January,” he said.
“The focus on her future role in an Executive is completely misdirected and premature.
“That discussion will only arise when there is an acceptable implementation plan to restore public confidence in the political process and ensures that the institutions will work on the basis of proper power-sharing, equality, respect and integrity.”
On Friday, Ms Foster signalled her optimism that a deal to restore power-sharing by a June 29 deadline could be done, adding that it “takes two to tango and we’re ready to dance”.
But Mr Kearney, speaking at an annual commemoration of republican icon Wolfe Tone, said: “It is not a game, and it DUP’s key demands as it pits Northern Ireland unfavourably against the Republic of Ireland, where the duty has been abolished.
In a letter to Mr Hammond (below), Mr McDonnell said: “I am writing to ask whether the Government has been asked for this measure by the DUP, has agreed to it or is considering it.
“In the interest of basic openness and transparency in government I am writing to ask that you publish any financial measures that have been discussed with the DUP and set out the financial implications of any measures agreed with this party.
“I look forward to a prompt response given is certainly not a dance. If the DUP imagines it can wind back the clock, with a Tory side deal or not, and re-establish the institutions without adherence the considerable public interest in this matter and its consequences for our public finances.”
The Prime Minister has said she is confident of getting the Queen’s Speech through the Commons, regardless of whether a deal is reached with the DUP by the time of the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday.
A formal deal has yet to be secured but Tory sources have said there is a “broad agreement” on the principles of the speech, and State Opening will now take place on Wednesday — two days later than originally scheduled.
A Number 10 spokesman would not comment on the ongoing talks, which are understood to focus
on support to equality and rights, then the DUP is indeed living in a fool’s paradise.”
Mr Kearney said his party’s equality and rights agenda “is for key Commons votes rather than a full coalition between the parties.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that next year’s Queen’s Speech is being ditched by the Government to ease the way in Parliament for new Brexit laws.
In a highly unusual move, the parliamentary session is being doubled to two years.
Commons leader Andrea Leadsom said it would give MPs and peers the maximum time possible to scrutinise legislation taking the UK out of the European Union. It means the Government will not put forward a new legislative programme next year.
It comes amid growing pressure on Mrs May over her future as Prime Minister.
Tory backbencher Heidi Allen told The Sunday Times the country not negotiable”. “Continued refusal by the DUP and British Government to accept these fundamental positions will create only one outcome: a future of wanted a “leader and a party that will carry us through this most turbulent of periods but care about the little man”.
“We have to change, and if we don’t we deserve to die,” she added.
Former Brexit minister David Jones, who was sacked in Mrs May’s reshuffle, warned the PM not to row back on the exit strategy taking Britain out of the EU, telling the newspaper it would be a “betrayal of trust”.
Extending the new parliamentary session will allow MPs and peers to examine Brexit laws as well as domestic reforms in depth, according to the Government. The Government said the Great Repeal Bill, which converts EU laws into British legislation, will be considered alongside other Brexit laws. permanent political instability,” he said.
Northern Ireland has been without an executive since March and without a First and Deputy First Minister since January, after Sinn Fein collapsed the administration amid faltering relations with the DUP. Talks to restore Stormont took a back seat in recent days as the political focus shifted to London and the DUP’s deal to prop up the Conservatives at Westminster.
Parties return to talks today, and SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said two weeks is more than enough time to do a deal.
“The public will have every right to be unforgiving if another deadline is missed,” he said.
“Weekend reports regarding the precarious position of the British Prime Minister must not stall or delay getting the institutions back up and running.
“The SDLP is determined to re-establish institutions in the North which last for the long term regardless of whether the Theresa May-led Government falls.” DIANE Abbott has returned to her role on the Labour front bench after being removed from her position before the General Election due to ill health.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn confirmed Ms Abbott, one of his closest allies, had been reappointed as Shadow Home Secretary after she was briefly replaced by former Shadow Home Office minister Lyn Brown in the final days of the election campaign. Ms Abbott revealed her Type 2 diabetes was “out of control” during the campaign where she struggled in a series of broadcast interviews on police funding and security.
Mr Corbyn told ITV’s Peston on Sunday that she was “back in post”. LABOUR has overtaken the Tories in popularity following the shock General Election result, a new poll suggests.
Research by Survation for Good Morning Britain (GMB) gave Jeremy Corbyn’s party a three point lead over the Conservatives, as 44% of respondents backed Labour, 41% opted for the Tories, and 6% for the Lib Dems.
Some 48% of people think Mrs May should remain Prime Minister while 45% want her to resign amid intense scrutiny of her leadership following the Tories’ poor election result and the Grenfell Tower fire.
However, Mrs May was the party leader most people trusted to negotiate the best Brexit deal (52%) while 39% backed Mr Corbyn.