Free abortions for Ulster women after threat of Tory revolt

‘I can barely put my anger into words’

MINISTERS caved in to pressure over abortion last night to avert a defeat on the Queen’s Speech.

In a dramatic U-turn, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced that the Government would accept backbenchers’s pleas to provide funding for women in Northern Ireland to have abortions in England on the NHS.

The move came after a number of Tory MPs signalled that they would back an amendment to the Queen’s Speech by Labour MP Stella Creasy demanding the change. The climbdown removed the final hurdle to the passage of the Queen’s Speech, which cleared the Commons last night by 323 votes to 309.

But it also underlined the fragility of Theresa May’s government, and the ability of Tory backbenchers to make common cause with Labour to force concessions.

Campaigners have been pressing the Department for Health for years to help women from Northern Ireland who cannot get an abortion in the Province because of its strict abortion laws.

Last year 724 women from Northern Ireland travelled to England for an abortion, but had to fund the procedure themselves. Miss Creasy said the situ- ation amounted to ‘discrimination’, adding: ‘The fact is that those women are UK taxpayers contributing towards the cost of the NHS, they are unable to use NHS services at all when they are in England.’

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt dismissed the call on Wednesday night, saying ministers would launch a consultation to consider the issue.

But Tory whips warned ministers yesterday that they were in danger of losing a vote on the issue.

Hours later, Mr Hammond told MPs that new money would now be found to pay for women from Northern Ireland to have abortions in the UK. The Chancellor said the issue was one of ‘great importance’ and suggested that ministers had already been looking for a ‘sensible way of dealing with this challenge’.

Equalities minister Justine Greening later said new money would be provided to the NHS so that ‘no English health service user is disadvantaged as a result of this change’.

Downing Street said the move would cost about £1million a year.

Miss Creasy then agreed to withdraw her amendment, saying: ‘Let us send a message to women everywhere that in this Parliament their voice will be heard and their rights upheld.’

The amendment appears to have been designed in part to embarrass the Government over its pact with the Democratic Unionist Party, which is staunchly opposed to any relaxation of Northern Ireland’s strict abortion laws.

But the DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr indicated his party would reluctantly accept the move, saying: ‘This is not a matter for Belfast – it is a matter for NHS England.’

The DUP’s ten MPs then trooped through the division lobbies to vote for the Queen’s Speech, ensuring the Prime Minister’s majority.

The pact with the DUP has proved controversial with some Tories, partly because of its £1billion cost, and partly because of the party’s conservative stance on issues such as abortion and gay rights.

Tory MP Heidi Allen last night attacked ministers for agreeing the deal – and said she had even considered voting against the Queen’s Speech in protest.

‘I want an honest, transparent, collaborative, respectful and positive kind of politics so I can barely put into words my anger at the deal my party has done with the DUP,’ she said. ‘We didn’t need to do it.

‘I must put on record my distaste for the use of public funds to garner political control.

‘We should have run with a minority government and showed the country what mature, progressive politics looks like.’

But DUP MP Sammy Wilson hit back, saying the deal had been done in the national interest to prevent Jeremy Corbyn taking power.

He denied it was a ‘grubby backroom deal’, as Labour has claimed, pointing out that it had been published in full.