Deal does not breach peace accord, Trimble tells DUP
‘This is not the time to be looking for excuses not to implement either the Good Friday Agreement or the new deal’
ONE of the architects of the Irish peace process urged the DUP to vote for Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal yesterday, insisting it did not breach the Good Friday Agreement.
Lord Trimble, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, hailed Mr Johnson’s agreement as a “great step forward”, despite warnings from the DUP that it would cut Northern Ireland adrift from the rest of the UK without their consent.
Mr Johnson has agreed to allow regulatory checks and some customs inspections on goods moving from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland, which the DUP says would damage their economy and “drive a coach and horses” through the Good Friday Agreement.
But Lord Trimble, the former Ulster Unionist Party leader, said: “This is fully in accordance with the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.”
“What we now want to see is for the DUP and Sinn Fein to act together to bring the Good Friday Agreement back to life. This is not the time to be looking for excuses not to implement either the Good Friday Agreement or the new deal.”
Lord Trimble’s assessment was swiftly rejected by the DUP, which claims that the lack of a veto on the deal at the Northern Ireland Assembly undermines the 1998 peace treaty.
“I don’t agree with David [Trimble] that what is proposed respects fully the petition of concern as set out on the agreement of 1998,” DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson told BBC Radio Ulster, referring to the mechanism that allows parties to block certain laws.
He said that the DUP would soon table amendments to Mr Johnson’s deal to “address concerns” about customs and the consent process.
The DUP has insisted several times that it must have a veto on the arrangements for Northern Ireland if Mr Johnson hopes to win their support.
Sir Jeffrey, who said he felt “very badly let down” by Mr Johnson, refused to confirm whether the DUP’S confidence and supply agreement with the Tories would end after they vote down the deal tomorrow.
It came as the DUP faced a backlash from unionist rivals over its handling of the Brexit deal, while grassroots supporters said they feared the party had been betrayed by the Prime Minister.
A senior loyalist source close to the DUP said they were “very angry” about the failure to avoid an Irish sea border but stressed that “all is not lost yet”.
Other unionist parties, which were generally supportive of the DUP’S Brexit position before last week, also reacted with anger about the deal.
Jim Allister, the head of the Traditional Unionist Voice party, claimed the Union would “slowly bleed to death” if Northern Ireland stays economically aligned with the EU.
Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, said: “It’s an absolute disgrace … this deal is worse than the one Theresa May brought forward at Chequers. It’s awful.”
David Cather, who has supported the DUP since he was a teenager, told The Daily Telegraph the party should not have put its trust in the Tory leader.
At the DUP’S party conference last year, Mr Johnson received a hero’s reception after he promised he would never put up a border between Northern Ireland and mainland Britain.
“At the end of the day the DUP wants to see Northern Ireland successful but now Boris is throwing them under the bus,” said Charles Weir, a dairy farmer in County Down.
But Mr Weir and Mr Cather both said they planned to vote DUP in the next election as there was no credible alternative for serious unionists.