Sammy Wilson:

We are a unionist party. We won’t support a Government that gives in to draconian EU demands

In the final rundown to bitterly contested and extremely divisive negotiations, it is only to be expected that all those involved will try to push the other side into a corner, force the opposition to blink first, fly kites as to what is possible to sell, and persuade opponents that there is no alternative and that this is the best offer they can get.

That is what is now happening in the Brexit negotiations as the EU seeks to force the Government to accept its draconian solution to trade across the Irish border and customs arrangements between the UK and EU.

To date the Government has signalled to the EU negotiators that we are a soft touch who can be pushed around. As a result, we have encouraged the EU to stick to its unrealistic demands that internal economic and regulatory boundaries be imposed within the UK, otherwise there will be no deal on future trade arrangements.

Privately and publicly, the Prime Minister is saying that she will not accept any break-up of the UK, but the briefings and leaks about the shape of the Irish backstop, so foolishly and unnecessarily conceded last December, would suggest that some consideration is being given to the destructive demands being made by Barnier & Co.

These include: the UK staying within the customs union for an unspecified time-limited period; an arrangement which would exclude Northern Ireland from any trade arrangements which the UK would make with other countries in the future; and EU regulations being applied to goods and services produced in Northern Ireland, with checks on movements of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

If the Government is putting these proposals into the public domain to test the water, our advice is for it to get its toe out quickly or it is going to get burnt. As a unionist party, we will not give our support to any deal that includes such economically and constitutionally damaging arrangements.

When the Democratic Unionist Party entered into the confidence and supply arrangement with the Government, we did so to enable it to deliver on the fiscal elements of its domestic programme and the referendum to leave the EU.

If the Government decides in the face of EU belligerence to cut and run and leave part of the UK languishing in the stifling embrace of the EU, then that would be unacceptable to us and many others in the Commons. It would have implications not just for Brexit legislation – 50 per cent of which would not have passed without DUP support – but also for the Budget, welfare reform and other domestic legislation.

Apart from the effect that this sellout would have on Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister must know that it would be a gift to the Scottish Nationalists, who would demand READ MORE at telegraph.co.uk/ opinion special treatment. Also by keeping the issue of customs union membership open until the next election at least, she would enter that election with the infighting over Europe still tearing her party apart.

The real danger is that we would forever be stuck in the customs union, because the EU would always have the option of saying that no satisfactory arrangements were in place to avoid border checks between any part of the UK and the EU.

Now is not the time to try to sell even more compromise to satisfy the appetite of the EU to humiliate our country. The road which the leaks and briefings is outlining is the road to parliamentary defeat for any deal the Prime Minister brings forward.

She will not have DUP support regardless of whether the Government tries to bribe, bully or browbeat us into accepting it. However, if the Government decides to stand up to the outrageous, capricious and extortionate demands from Brussels, she will have our full support and she could rally the country behind her.

Sammy Wilson MP is the DUP’S Brexit spokesman