DUP warns May: Don’t count on our vote if you give in to Dublin

Mounting row over Irish border leaves May having to make ground in the face of competing interests

THERESA MAY risks destabilising her minority Government if she caves in to Irish demands on the Northern Irish border question in the ongoing Brexit negotiations, senior Democratic Unionist Party figures warned yesterday.

Sammy Wilson, one of the 10 DUP MPS propping up Mrs May, said that any compromise that would leave Northern Ireland “half in” the EU risked collapsing the DUP deal.

“If there is any hint that in order to placate Dublin and the EU, they’re prepared to have Northern Ireland treated differently than the rest of the UK, then they can’t rely on our vote,” Mr Wilson told the BBC from East Antrim.

The warning piled further pressure on Mrs May as she urgently seeks to make “sufficient progress” in the Brexit negotiations this month.

She is due in Brussels on Monday for a lunch with Jean-claude Juncker, the EC president, where she was expected to submit final UK positions on Ireland, the Brexit bill and citizens’ rights.

Dublin took an equally tough position yesterday. Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, told the Irish parliament that Dublin would not accept a fudge on the issue and implicitly threatened again to veto progress on the talks.

“We are looking for significantly more clarity than we currently have from the British negotiating team,” said Mr Coveney, adding that “constructive ambiguity” would not suffice if Mrs May wanted to make progress at the EU leaders summit on Dec 14-15.

He added: “Hopefully we will make progress that will allow us to move on to Phase 2 in the middle of December. If it is not possible to do that, so be it.”

The Irish government has demanded “written assurances” that Northern Ireland will not seek to diverge from EU rules and regulations, effectively granting a “special status” for the North, which would not be free to embrace the UK’S newly independent trade policy after Brexit.

Unionists have responded angrily to the EU and Irish suggestion that the UK should introduce customs along the east-west border in the Irish Sea in order to enable Northern Ireland to remain in regulatory convergence with the Republic.

Following back-room talks with the Government yesterday, Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, reiterated that the DUP “will not countenance” any arrangement that could put customs checks in ports along the UK west coast.

“There can be no arrangements agreed that compromise the integrity

‘Any hint they are prepared to have Northern Ireland treated differently... then they can’t rely on our vote’

of the UK single market and place barriers, real or perceived, to the free movement of goods, services and capital between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom,” she said.

It came amid reports that Foreign Office officials told Irish diplomats to “ignore the public utterances” of Boris Johnson.

Sky News reported that officials told Irish government “not to listen to whatever he had to say”, ahead of the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Dublin a number of weeks ago. However, last night friends of Mr Johnson described the story as “nonsense.”

Mr Johnson met with Mr Coveney, his counterpart, for Brexit discussions on Nov 17.

A spokesman for Mr Johnson said: “We don’t recognise this version of events and the claims made in the article are not supported by any sources in the Foreign Office, either on, or off the record.” The Foreign Office also refuted the claim.