Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WE’VE BEEN DUPED AGAIN
Boris faces Commons struggle as Ulster party refuses to support EU pact
THE DUP is set to give Boris Johnson a Brexit headache after they refused to back his new deal.
The Prime Minister faces an uphill struggle to get the pact he agreed with the EU through Parliament.
Despite his display of victory in Brussels yesterday, he still needs the support of 320 MPS.
The DUP said: “These proposals are not, in our view, beneficial to the economic well-being of Northern Ireland and they undermine the integrity of the Union.”
BORIS Johnson’s Brexit deal was yesterday branded worse than the one Theresa May failed three times to get through Parliament.
And the PM now faces an uphill struggle to get it passed in a dramatic Commons showdown tomorrow that will hang on less than a dozen votes.
Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP and DUP have said they are to reject the deal. Mr Johnson will spend the next 24 hours desperately trying to drum up support to get the majority 320 votes he needs to implement it.
The DUP said the proposals for democratic consent, with Stormont voting on a straight majority basis, drive a coach and horses through the Good Friday Agreement. A party statement added: “These proposals are not, in our view, beneficial to the economic well-being of Northern Ireland and they undermine the integrity of the Union.”
The party’s Westminster leader Nigel Dodds claimed the Benn Act, which requires the Prime Minister to ask for an extension of there is no deal by tomorrow, had forced Mr Johnson into “desperation measures”.
He said: “If he’d held his nerve – held out – he would have got better concessions which kept the integrity, both economic and constitutional, of the UK.”
Mr Dodds added the DUP believed that since it had been proved the Withdrawal Agreement could be changed, it “should be changed much more for the better”.
He said the issue of consent in the deal is a “major rewriting of the Belfast Agreement” adding it was “something anyone who has any concern for any kind of political process in Northern Ireland should be very, very concerned about”.
Mr Dodds said he expected a “massive vote” against Mr Johnson’s deal tomorrow and believes the DUP will not be isolated on that.
Sinn Fein’s Stormont leader Michelle O’neill called for “more clarity” following yesterday’s development. She added that “nothing good will come of Brexit”.
Last night she tweeted: “Our Sinn Fein delegation met with Tanaiste Simon Coveney.
“We have been assured there will be no hard border or DUP veto. While we welcome a deal, there is no good Brexit.
“Any deal can only mitigate against the worst effects of Brexit. The ultimate solution is Irish unity.”
Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann claimed the deal “is worse than the one Theresa May brought forward at Chequers”.
He added: “It’s awful. Some of the people who were berating it are now cheerleaders for a deal which would place Northern Ireland on the window ledge of the Union.”
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood
said the deal “should prevent a hard border in Ireland”.
He added: “The Brexit deal agreed confirms our long-stated position that there is no such thing as a good Brexit – only degrees of harm caused to economic and political stability on this island.
“This deal does, however, meet the minimum requirements to avoid a hard border and the introduction of customs or regulatory checks across this island.”
Alliance chief and MEP Naomi Long said: “It certainly appears to be a worse deal than the original backstop, as envisaged by Theresa May.
“Given the need to avoid no-deal, our preference is Parliament passes the Johnson deal subject to it being put to the public in a UK referendum with Remain on the ballot paper.”
TUV leader Jim Allister claimed the deal places Northern Ireland in a “waiting room for a united Ireland”. Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer warned the deal paves the way for a decade of deregulation that gives the PM licence to slash workers’ rights, the environment and consumer protections.
He said: “Labour will not support a flawed Brexit deal that harms jobs, rights and living standards. This deal will unquestionably do that.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn added: “From what we know, Johnson’s negotiated a worse deal than Theresa May.
“This sell-out deal risks our rights, protections and NHS. It won’t bring the country together and should be rejected.”
Downing Street insiders confirmed the PM was preparing a package of measures on workers’ rights to encourage any Labour MPS thinking of backing a deal.
But one said: “I don’t trust him to deliver on his promises on workers’ rights, despite what he says publicly and No10 is telling us privately. I’m not sure my colleagues will go for it.”
Even staunch Brexiteer Nigel Farage slammed the PM’S deal, insisting he would “prefer to have an extension and a General Election” than accept it. He said: “Boris Johnson can say what he likes but we will never be able to properly break free of the EU with this new deal.”
Mr Johnson secured a pact with the EU after a summit with leaders including Jean-claude Juncker.
And it leaves him facing a high stakes gamble at tomorrow’s clash – the first time the Commons has sat at a weekend since the 1982 Falklands War – by trying to get his plan through on the back of the votes of Tory Brexiteers and Labour Leave MPS.
Mr Johnson, who was in Brussels with his chief advisor Dominic Cummings, yesterday warned if his Brexit agreement was voted down, it would lead to a no-deal.
The PM already has around 260 votes in the bag and needs up to 60 more to get his deal over the line, depending on abstentions.
He will have to win over a handful of Labour MPS who represent Leave areas, many of whom face the biggest decision of their political career.
If he’d held his nerve – held out – he would have got better concessions NIGEL DODDS ON BORIS JOHNSON’S NEW DEAL
There’s something out there... and if aliens do exist, they have decided to make their appearances in some of the most random places.
This week actor Michael Sheen claimed his home town, Port Talbot in South Wales, is a hub of alien activity.
He said he thought the town, known for its giant steelworks “is on some weird alien map. It’s like some sort of lay-by. The Little Chef of the galaxy”.
It’s not the only odd hotspot for UFO sightings in the UK. From a Scottish town to a Midlands forest and a hill in Wiltshire, there are some places which seem to be obligatory stops for visiting aliens..
BONNYBRIDGE, SCOTLAND
Lies within the so-called Falkirk
Triangle where alien activity has been reported on a regular basis since the 1990s.
One of the first-documented accounts came in 1992 when businessman James Walker spotted a shining, star-shaped object hovering over a road, blocking his path. He said it flew away at “an incredible speed”.
Since then there have been an average of 300 sightings per year, including unexplained balls of light and a cigar-shaped craft landing on a golf course.
BROAD HAVEN, WALES
Alien sightings go as far back as the 1970s in this seaside village.
In 1977 children at Broad Haven Primary School claimed they had seen a strange silver object hover over a field beyond their Pembrokeshire playground.
The head separated the students and asked them to draw what they had seen under exam conditions. He was amazed to find all the drawings identical.
Weeks later, Pauline Coombes and husband Billy were watching TV when a seven-foot humanoid figure in a silver suit appeared at the window with a blank space instead of a face.
Later the same year a herd of cattle suddenly vanished, only to reappear in a field, far away from the farm.
RENDLESHAM, SUFFOLK
Two US airmen reported seeing a triangular spacecraft with lights like a “glowing red eye” in Rendlesham Forest in December 1980.
As John Burroughs and Jim Penniston, based at the nearby RAF Woodbridge, got closer it moved away and “the animals on a nearby farm went into a frenzy”.
Base deputy commander Col Charles Halt later revealed that radar operators saw the object move on their screens at thousands of miles an hour.
Since then alien investigators who have returned to the forest claim extraterrestrials are still targeting the site, with one group of UFO hunters claiming they saw flying saucers moving through the trees in October last year.
STONEHENGE
Numerous reports of UFOS hovering over the Neolithic monument have led many to believe a theory the site was once an alien spacecraft landing pad.
Declassified Ministry of Defence files on UFOS, released in 2013, also describe reports of UFOS hovering over the worldfamous stone circle.
In 2015, the UFO Sightings Blog posted a photo of a flying saucer in the sky above Stonehenge, describing how the black, discshaped craft hovered for a short time over the stones, just before the summer solstice, before disappearing.
PRESTWICK AIRPORT, GLASGOW
Intergalactic flights appear to touch down at Glasgow’s second airport, according to secret files released by the MOD in 2010.
They document how a traffic controller had tracked a fastmoving and unexplained UFO on the radar in February 1999, sparking an RAF investigation.
LIVERPOOL
With more reports of alien activity than anywhere else in the UK, Liverpool is officially the UK’S top UFO hotspot.
Police in Merseyside dealt with 18 reports of alien activity in the city during 2014-2015, and eight reports in 2016-2017, according to Freedom of Information requests. In 2015, a Ryanair flight delayed landing due to sighting a UFO over the River Mersey.
CLEY HILL, WARMINSTER
Once an Iron Age hill fort, it’s been a hotbed of UFO sightings since the 17th century, while nearby Warminster has its own National Reporting Centre for UFOS.
In the 1960s there was a spate of sightings of a strange, shimmering light, eventually captured on film in 1965 and dubbed “the Warminster thing”.
Last August, more UFOS were spotted “flying separately in the sky, before joining together and splitting again, creating a bright light in the sky”.
SHROPSHIRE
The county was named the national UFO hotspot in 2008 with 22 unexplained sightings, going back to 1961.
In 2016, a mysterious flying triangle dubbed the “Flying Dorito” was spotted near Sleep Airfield, Wem.
And former UFO investigator for the MOD Nick Pope has also described sightings of triangular craft flying slowly over RAF Shawbury before “suddenly accelerating away, many times faster than a military jet.”.
CANNOCK CHASE
A number of UFO incidents came to light here in 2007 when the MOD published its records on UFO reports across the country.
In 1995 two boys told police they had seen a figure with a lemon-shaped head by a spaceship in a field in Chasetown.
BERWYN MOUNTAINS, NORTH WALES
In January 1974 witnesses heard a bang and saw a brilliant light over the Berwyn Mountains. Many said an alien crash was concealed dubbed the Welsh Roswell.
It was dismissed by authorities, but UFO experts are convinced the area is still being visited by aliens.
UFO investigator Russ Kellet said: “I have been looking closely, and something is going on.
“There is no doubt an alien base under the sea on the North Wales coastline.”