DUP leader calls May’s visit a distraction

ARLENE FOSTER has risked opening a rift with Downing Street after she labelled Theresa May’s visit to Northern Ireland to try to end the power-sharing deadlock at Stormont a “distraction”.

The DUP’S 10 MPS are propping up Mrs May’s minority government after the Conservative Party lost its majority at last year’s general election.

However, the deal between the two parties did not stop Mrs Foster, the DUP’S leader, from appearing to criticise her ally in a move which is likely to have raised eyebrows in Westminster.

Mrs May used her visit to Northern Ireland on Monday to urge political leaders to make “one final push” to restore the ruling executive. But Mrs Foster suggested Mrs May’s arrival was not overly helpful.

She told Sky News yesterday: “Obviously the Prime Minister is always very welcome to this part of the UK and I know that she did want to show her support for Bombardier and we do thank her for her intervention in relation to that issue.

“We did have some conversations yesterday as well and I thought that was useful. But in fact the visit yesterday became a bit of a distraction because we had still work to do and we will continue to do that work today and in the coming days.”

Mrs May used her trip to Belfast to say that while “differences remain” between the DUP and Sinn Fein she believed that “there is the basis of an agreement”. Northern Ireland has been without a functioning government since Jan 2017 and several rounds of talks to resolve the crisis have failed.