DUP to insist on increased military spending as condition for supporting Government

Two per cent pledge sought amid revelation of previous draft deal between the parties after 2015 election

SPENDING increases on the Army, Navy and Air Force will be the Democratic Unionist Party’s price for propping up a Conservative minority government.

The DUP and the Tories are finalising details of their confidence and supply agreement and could announce broad principles as soon as today.

DUP negotiators are understood to have told Tory ministers that the Government must guarantee that the two per cent of GDP spent on defence does not include non-military spending.

One source said that the DUP was pushing for “a real two per cent” worth of spending on defence.

Last month a letter signed by former commanders, academics and two former chiefs of the defence staff said the Government had failed to provide enough money for its own defence plans, and was instead relying on “unidentified and questionable” savings.

The letter said: “Government boasts of spending two per cent of GDP on defence are widely criticised as an accounting deception. Most analysts now agree core defence expenditure for hard military power is well below two per cent.”

The deal to be unveiled today by Theresa May and Arlene Foster, leader of the DUP, will be “broad-brush” and a “broad outline of principles”, sources said, to allow for a more detailed legislative programme to be hammered out in the coming days.

Gavin Williamson, the Government’s chief whip, told the party’s 1922 backbench committee meeting last night that “we are getting there” with the talks about a deal.

Mrs Foster, said that she had had a “positive engagement with the Conservative Party”. She said she would be travelling to London for discussions with her team of 10 DUP MPS ahead of a meeting with the Prime Minister later today.

She said: “We are going into these talks with the national interest at heart. The Union, as I said before, is our guiding star.

“We believe in the Union, we believe in national stable government and that will be at the forefront of our mind going into these talks again tomorrow.”

The news came as it emerged that the two parties had come close to agreeing a confidence and supply deal two years ago.

The Daily Telegraph can disclose that the Conservative Party and DUP drew up a formal “draft agreement” after the narrow Tory election victory at the 2015 general election.

David Cameron, the then prime minister, and George Osborne, then chancellor, were keen to explore talks to see if they could create a big enough majority to face down demands from Eurosceptics for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.

Conservative sources said that, while the deal was never formally agreed, it demonstrated how the two parties have a long history of working together closely.

A copy of the draft agreement – marked “official – sensitive” and seen by The Telegraph – was hammered out over several days.

It set out a number of ways in which the government would offer financial support to Northern Ireland as the price for any support. In return “for the support provided by the DUP” the government agreed to “examine seriously … adjustments to the corporate tax regime in Northern Ireland” and “discuss with the DUP other tax changes that could encourage economic growth in Northern Ireland”.

Separately, James Brokenshire, the Northern Ireland Secretary, was in Belfast last night to try to persuade the DUP and Sinn Fein to agree to form a power-sharing administration.

Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams has warned that Mr Brokenshire is not acceptable as a mediator to the negotiations, saying he represents the “partisan” British Government.