Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
OH NO May gave DUP £1billion for their support... now they derail Brexit
EU DEAL SHAMBLES
THE DUP scuppered Brexit talks yesterday by blocking a deal on the border.
The Prime Minister was forced to back away just minutes from finalising first-phase negotiations in Brussels following a tense telephone showdown with DUP chief Arlene Foster.
Jeremy Corbyn said the PM’S “grubby” £1billion DUP election deal had sunk her Brexit plans.
THE DUP sunk Theresa May’s Brexit plans last night as boss Arlene Foster refused to back a deal resolving the Irish border question.
The Prime Minister was forced to back away just minutes from finalising the pact in Brussels, for fear her government could collapse without the party’s support.
The PM had been just minutes away from finally securing agreement with Brussels chiefs to enable the UK and EU to start trade talks.
But in an extraordinary twist, Mrs May was forced to abandon the pact at the last minute after a fraught phone call with DUP chief Arlene Foster.
She bluntly warned the PM there was no way her party would accept a deal which in effect separated it from the rest of the UK.
Speaking at Stormont, Mrs Foster said: “We have been very clear. Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom. We will not accept any form of regulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the United Kingdom.”
Red-faced Mrs May caved in again to the DUP – despite giving them £1billion – because of her nightmare fears her Government could collapse if the DUP walked away.
The DUP’S 10 MPS are delicately propping up the Government after Mrs May’s Tories after June’s election.
She also faces a potentially toxic backlash from Tory Brexiteers as well as fresh pleas for special treatment from London and Scotland.
Last night Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the British government appeared to have changed its mind about an agreement over the status of the border after Brexit.
He said: “I am surprised and disappointed that the British government now appears not to be in a position to conclude what was agreed earlier today.
“The majority of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain. And the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland voted for the Good Friday Agreement.”
But the DUP’S Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson claimed Brussels had been trying to “bounce” the PM “into acceding to the shape of a deal they want”.
He said his party objected to the form of words used in a draft document, which referred to “regulatory alignment” and “no regulatory divergence” between Northern Ireland the EU.
Regulatory alignment could mean both the Republic and Northern Ireland following the same rules governing trade, to ensure that goods can continue to move freely across a “soft” border with no checks.
But critics said it would effectively move the customs border into the Irish Sea.
Mr Wilson added both phrases were “simply EU speak for keeping Northern Ireland in the European market” and “in effect, part of the United Kingdom would be kept within the single market”.
Asked if the DUP would pull out of the confidence and supply agreement they have with the Tory Government in Westminster over this issue, he said: “I think her [Theresa May] problem isn’t going to be just with the DUP.”
Mrs May faced a further crisis last night as leaders of devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and London announced that if Northern Ireland was to be offered special status after Brexit, other parts of the UK should be offered the same.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn added: “The real reason for today’s failure is the grubby deal the Government did with the DUP after the election.”
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein’s Declan Kearney has warned the Good Friday Agreement is facing its most serious threat.
The South Antrim MLA accused the DUP and the Tories of creating the continuing crisis at Stormont, which is threatening “the entire basis of the Good Friday Agreement”.
Mr Kearney said: “The British government and DUP alliance is based upon a unionist agenda defined in terms of support for Brexit, austerity and opposition to a rights-based framework for government.
“They have created the current crisis and, as a result, the entire basis of the Good Friday Agreement is now faced with its most serious threat in the history of the peace process.”
Speaking in Stormont at the launch of a new Sinn Fein booklet entitled No Return To The Status Quo, the party’s national chairman added a “successful resolution hinges on whether political unionism can accept, and co-exist in partnership, with the Irish cultural tradition, and Irish nationalist and republican identity”.
The majority of people in NI voted remain. And the vast majority voted for the GFA LEO VARADKAR DUBLIN YESTERDAY