Hypocrites! How Labour wanted DUP deal in 2010

Labour was accused of rank hypocrisy last night after it emerged Gordon brown had tried to negotiate a deal with the DUP seven years ago.

Senior Labour figures – including Tony blair’s former spin doctor alastair Campbell – have spent the days since the election criticising Theresa May for entering into talks with the Northern Irish party.

They say it is wrong that she should be seeking a deal because the party has oldfashioned views on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.

Mr Campbell accused Mrs May of putting the peace process at risk, because the government is supposed to be neutral between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

but it has emerged Mr brown got then Northern Ireland secretary Shaun Woodward to make plans for an ‘economic package’ to woo the DUP in 2010.

Leaked emails to Hillary Clinton reveal the existence of the proposed deal – and that Mr Campbell was present at key meetings.

one message written to Mrs Clinton when she was US secretary of state in 2010 reveals that Mr brown was ‘doing whatever he can to hold on to power’.

The former Labour PM had failed to gain a majority in the election and was desperately trying to cobble together a ‘rainbow coalition’ with other parties.

The Clinton email showed Mr Campbell was at a meeting, on the day after the election, at which a LABOUR-DUP deal was proposed.

The meeting was also attended by Ed balls, husband of former shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper who has been critical of the TORY-DUP deal. The email said: ‘ Gordon is doing whatever he can to hold on to power.

‘Shaun, for his part, is working on an economic package for Northern Ireland to win support from the DUP and other parties for Labour – a package to be proposed in the Queen’s Speech … alastair has emerged as a stalwart, providing Gordon with talking points and practical ideas hour by hour.’

Mr brown’s key aim was a deal with progressive parties such as the Lib Dems, the Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP.

but he wanted to neutralise the threat of the DUP voting with the Tories against his government, so sought the unionists’ assurance they would, as a minimum, support his Queen’s Speech. The plan was to present the spending pack- age in the Speech, in the hope the DUP would vote it through.

but the deal never came to pass because the Lib Dems entered into a formal coalition with David Cameron’s Tories. Earlier this week, Ian Paisley Jr, a DUP MP, claimed on Twitter that Ed Mili- band had also tried to do a deal with the unionist party in 2015.

It is unclear what sort of deal Mr Paisley was referring to, given that David Cameron got an outright majority in 2015. but it could be that Mr Miliband had opened discussions in the run-up to the elec- tion in the expectation Labour would be the largest party.

a string of Labour politicians have criticised the Tories’ proposed confidence and supply deal with the DUP. Mr Miliband tweeted that the deal represented a ‘coalition of chaos’.

Miss Cooper went on TV to say that the ‘troubling’ deal could put the Northern Irish peace process in jeopardy. This drew a rebuke from Caroline Flint, another former Labour minister, who tweeted: ‘No it doesn’t. Gordon brown sought deals with DUP.’

In the past few days Mr Campbell has tweeted describing the proposed deal as a ‘dangerous disgrace’. He said on Question Time that Mrs May was ‘playing fast and loose on Tony blair and John Major’s greatest achievement which is the peace in Northern Ireland … She is putting that at risk with a sordid, dangerous, distasteful deal.’

but Nadine Dorries, Tory MP for Mid bedfordshire, said: ‘ Gordon brown tried on a number of occasions to form an alliance with the DUP. I think some members of the Labour Party need to learn a little of their own recent history.’

÷THE DUP will insist on increases in UK defence spending worth billions of pounds as part of its deal to support Theresa May.

It wants a stricter definition of the Nato 2 per cent target, which ministers currently calculate using spending on intelligence agencies and on armed forces pensions.

‘Need to learn their own history’