DUP ‘threatens to force election’ in Irish border storm
‘Totally unacceptable to Unionists’
THE Democratic Unionist Party was said last night to have threatened to force a general election amid a row over the Government’s legal advice on the Brexit deal.
Senior DUP figures reacted with fury after ministers bowed to pressure and published their official advice, which suggested the Northern Irish ‘backstop’ could ‘endure indefinitely’.
They accused Theresa May of acting in ‘bad faith’ and breaking her promises after the document set out how the province would be treated differently from the rest of the UK.
DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds called the document ‘devastating’ and warned that moving into the backstop would erect ‘totally unacceptable and economically mad’ trade barriers’ between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Ministers published the six-page legal letter from Attorney General Geoffrey Cox yesterday morning after suffering a humiliating defeat in the Commons on Tuesday night when threatened with ‘contempt of Parlia-preserving ment’. Written on November 13, it confirmed that the backstop would ‘endure indefinitely’ until a new deal was agreed with the EU.
In a bleak assessment of the possible consequences of signing the Brexit agreement with the EU, it highlighted the risk of being subject to ‘protracted and repeating rounds of negotiations’ with Brussels with no means of bringing them to an end.
Ministers said the backstop would not necessarily come into force and insisted it was ‘not sustainable’ in the long term under the EU’s own rules.
But the Prime Minister’s Tory critics seized upon the advice to bolster their argument that the backstop was a ‘trap’ designed to keep the UK inside a customs union.
They also argued that passing the deal in next Tuesday’s crunch vote would shatter the fragile agreement with the DUP which keeps the Conservatives in power.
The DUP has already declared it will not vote for Mrs May’s Brexit deal, and in recent weeks has flexed its muscles by repeatedly voting against the Government.
Mr Dodds accused Mrs May of failing to abide by ‘commitments’ made to the Union in the withdrawal agreement with the EU.
DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson accused her of ‘bad faith’. He said: ‘This backstop is totally unacceptable to Unionists throughout the United Kingdom and it must be defeated and arrangements renegotiated that uphold the commitments which the Prime Minister and her government has in the House of Commons.’
Sources claimed Mr Dodds had told hard-line Brexiteers his party could collapse the Government and force an election if the ‘meaningful vote’ goes through. A source in the European Reform Group of Brexiteers said Mr Dodds met ERG chairman Jacob Rees-Mogg and deputy chairman Steve Baker yesterday.
Mr Rees Mogg later told a meeting of MPs he understood that the DUP would support the Government in a confidence motion if the withdrawal agreement is voted down.
But he added that the ‘risk of losing them and having an election is if the withdrawal agreement goes through’.