DUP’s ominous threat to May

No Ulster trade border... or we’ll pull plug on Tories

‘They are playing with fire’ ‘Our duty is to ensure we leave’

THERESA May’s DUP allies last night threatened to pull the plug on her Government if she agrees to a Brexit border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

In a dramatic intervention, a senior Democratic Unionist Party source told the Mail that Mrs May was ‘playing with fire’ by considering the EU’s demands for new regulatory checks in the Irish Sea as part of a Brexit deal.

The source said the party’s ten MPs could vote against this month’s Budget or even pull the plug on the deal that props up Mrs May’s Government.

It was reported last night that Mrs May will tonight ask her Brexit ‘war Cabinet’ to agree to a backstop plan that would keep Britain in a customs union with the EU until a permanent trade deal can be agreed.

British and EU negotiators have reportedly agreed in principle to an all-UK backstop plan to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland that would overcome the final major obstacle blocking a withdrawal agreement, The Daily Telegraph claimed.

Mrs May’s backstop plan would involve the UK remaining in a customs union with the EU while negotiations take place over a free trade deal, which could take years. Mainland Britain would leave the single market, regaining the ability to set its own regulations, but Northern Ireland would stay in the single market for goods. It means there would be increased regulatory checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea.

In a show of strength last night, the DUP’s MPs abstained on a Commons vote on the Agriculture Bill – a key piece of Brexit legislation they are committed to support. The vote was won comfortably by the Government, but a wider strike by the DUP would put Mrs May’s legislative programme in peril.

The Prime Minister’s decision to convene a meeting of her ‘war Cabinet’ came on a fraught day, in which:

EU negotiator Michel Barnier appeared to rule out Mrs May’s Chequers proposal, saying it would give UK business a ‘huge competitive edge’;

Boris Johnson warned that proposals for a ‘temporary’ customs union would make Britain an ‘EU colony’;

Tory Remainers said 30 MPs were ready to join Eurosceptics in voting down Mrs May’s plans in the hope of forcing a second referendum.

The DUP’s MPs prop up the Government through a formal ‘confidence and supply’ deal that obliges them to vote for the Budget, the Queen’s Speech and Brexit legislation.

But the senior party source said: ‘They are playing with fire on this regulatory stuff. It is unacceptable that we would be treated differently to the rest of the UK. If Theresa May doesn’t take our concerns on board, she may not be the leader to take us through Brexit. Say they somehow squeak this (Chequers) vote with the help of 40 Labour MPs, but have 30 Tories and us voting against it? What then? How do they expect to govern?

‘And before that they’ve got a Budget to get through – we won’t be voting for that if they try to bounce us.’

A Downing Street source said the DUP could lose the £1 billion in extra funding secured for Northern Ireland if it abandoned its pact.

Reports yesterday claimed that up to 30 Labour MPs were considering voting for Mrs May’s Chequers deal in defiance of the Labour leadership.

In the Commons, former Tory chancellor Kenneth Clarke told Mrs May ‘the maths makes it obvious’ that she could get a Brexit deal through only with the help of pro-Remain Tories and Labour MPs.

Mrs May said: ‘When we come back with a deal, I would hope that everybody across the whole House will put the national interest first and not only look at a good deal for the future of the United Kingdom, but remember that having given the decision on whether we stay in the EU to the British people, and the British people having voted to leave, it is our duty to ensure that we leave.’

But one source said ‘fewer than ten’ Labour MPs were likely to vote with the Government.