£1bn DUP deal ‘not a bung’ insists Gove
Michael Gove has denied the Tories’ controversial £1 billion deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to prop up the minority government amounts to a “bung”.
The new Environment Secretary insisted the money did not amount to a “partisan deal”, despite Prime Minister Theresa May needing the support of the DUP’S ten MPS after losing the Tories’ Commons majority in a disastrous general election.
Tory backbencher Heidi Allen warned that her party has become “too inward looking” and has “forgotten the purpose”.
But Mr Gove insisted a deal was needed to ensure a “secure and stable” government and highlighted Northern Ireland’s unique problems dealing with the Troubles.
Speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Mr Gove said of the idea the deal was a “bung”: “I think that’s unfair to the people of Northern Ireland and I think it’s also unfair to the way in which during this negotiation decisions were taken in the interests of everyone in the United Kingdom.
“Bung is, the implication is … it implies this money is somehow going to the DUP on their own as if it were a partisan deal.
“It’s not. It’s about strengthening the whole United Kingdom by helping people in one of its most vulnerable areas.” The Scottish Government has backed the decision by Westminster to withdraw the UK from an arrangement that allows foreign countries to fish in British waters.
Ministers will today trigger withdrawal from the London Fisheries Convention – signed in 1964 – to start the two-year process to leave the agreement. The convention allows vessels from France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands to fish within six and 12 nautical miles of the UK’S coastline.
It sits alongside the EU Common Fisheries Policy which allows all European countries access between 12 and 200 nautical miles of the UK and sets quotas for how much fish nations can catch.
Withdrawing from the convention means UK vessels will 0 Fergus Ewing pushed for more powers for Scotland also lose the right to fish in waters six to 12 nautical miles offshore of the other countries.
Ministers claimed the move would help take back control of fishing access to UK waters.
Scotland’s Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing said: “The UK government’s decision to withdraw from the London Fisheries Convention is a move we have been pressing for