Adams warns May that DUP deal would be illegal

Sinn Fein tells Tories that pact with Unionists would be in breach of the Good Friday Agreement

GERRY ADAMS yesterday attempted to dictate terms to Theresa May by telling her that she could not form a Government with the backing of the Democratic Unionist Party.

The Sinn Fein president said he had told the Prime Minister “very directly” that she was “in breach of the Good Friday Agreement” by trying to agree a deal with the DUP to support her minority government in the Commons.

Mr Adams said his party would not take its seats in Westminster or swear an oath to the Queen, joking: “No harm to her.” The comment risked sparking upset because of Sinn Fein’s former links to the IRA, which was responsible for the death of Lord Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin and her husband’s uncle, in 1979.

It follows warnings from Sir John Major, the former prime minister, that the Government will compromise its impartiality in the province if it enters a confidence and supply deal with the DUP at Westminster. The 1998 Good Friday Agreement commits the UK and Irish governments to demonstrate “rigorous impartiality” in their dealings with the different political traditions in Northern Ireland.

Mr Adams was speaking hours after No 10 said the Queen would open Parliament on Wednesday and set out Mrs May’s planned laws in the Queen’s Speech. That will come after the start of the first round of talks about leaving the European Union on Monday.

Nigel Dodds, the DUP deputy leader, suggested that any “confidence and supply” deal might not be signed by the time of the Queen’s Speech. Sources said it could be signed on Tuesday or Thursday.

This could mean that Brexit talks begin and Parliament is opened without Mrs May being able to agree terms with the DUP to support a minority Conservative government.

With her tally of Conservative MPS reduced to 318 in last week’s poll, Mrs May needs the backing of the DUP’S 10 members to reach the 326 required for a working majority in the House of Commons.

A Tory source said Mrs May was “confident” of getting the Queen’s Speech through the Commons whether or not a deal was reached with the DUP.

The decision to have it two days later than the scheduled date of June 19 was made after Mrs May’s regular audience with the Queen on Wednesday.

The State Opening will be much reduced in scale, with the Queen arriving in a Bentley and wearing a dress rather than robes because of the event’s proximity to Trooping the Colour on Saturday, Palace sources said.

The Queen, who has already cancelled the annual garter ceremony on Monday, will travel on to Royal Ascot after the State Opening. Tim Loughton, a former Tory minister, was critical of the timing. He said that having annoyed most pensioners with the Tory manifesto, Mrs May was “determined to include our most pre-eminent one too” through the clash with Ascot.