The DUP has got Mrs May over a barrel

SO the Prime Minister managed to get through the Queens Speech votes with support from the expensive DUP. However, there are stormier waters to come with the complex European divorce legislation likely to cause increased tensions from within Tory ranks.

It just needs half a dozen rebels to wreck Government proposals, and there are signs that this could well happen. Tory MP Anna Soubry has already made her position very clear on certain aspects of the proposed Euro legislation that she and others do not like. It is difficult at present to see how Mrs May can satisfy their demands, particularly in relation to the Single Market.

The electorate has had its say, and I understand the last thing we want is another election. I believe the Prime Minister should have played the game with the cards at her disposal, not used taxpayers’ money to stitch up a deal with the DUP.

They may return for more sooner than she thinks, say in the case of the hated Airline Passenger Duty tax, due to be halved next year in Scotland and for which there is no surcharge in Dublin. To compete in Ulster, this tax has to go, and that will be costly for the Exchequer.

Politics is a game of chess, where the opposition has to be carefully sized up before a move is made. I do not think for one moment that the DUP would vote against the Tories, for it would give rise to the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn stitching up a Government, with whom they have absolutely no affinity due to his close association with the Republican movement in Ulster.

In the real world, the DUP has got Mrs May over a barrel. She is going to be looking over her shoulder, wondering where the next attack is coming from.

Setting aside all the Labour left wing’s blustering, there is much common ground between the Tories and the Opposition, and going back to the electorate’s decision, this is an area which should be explored with a view to achieving the end result both parties voted for. I have a feeling that in time Mrs May will come to regret this unseemly and unnecessary deal. Russell Luckock is chairman of Birmingham pressings firm

AE Harris