Foster denies threatening May with ‘red line’ on customs arrangements

ARLENE FOSTER has denied threatening the Prime Minister over Brexit, insisting she does not think Theresa May would even consider a deal that would treat Northern Ireland differently.

Weekend comments by the DUP leader about the party’s “red line” on customs arrangements post-Brexit were interpreted by some as a veiled threat to pull the plug on her party’s confidenceand-supply deal with the Tories.

Mrs Foster said she was simply reiterating the DUP’s longstanding position – that Northern Ireland must be treated the same as the rest of the UK in the exit deal. She had been asked about the issue amid speculation that Brexit Secretary David Davis was considering proposals that would see Northern Ireland covered by a joint regime of UK and EU customs regulations, allowing it to trade freely with both, plus a 10-mile-wide “special economic zone” on the border with Ireland. That idea was subsequently dismissed by Downing Street.

Mrs Foster said her remarks about the party’s red line was not a threat to Mrs May yesterday.

She said: “I don’t characterise it as a threat. Our red line is there, it’s open, everybody has heard me say it on many, many occasions. We will judge any proposition against that red line. Frankly I was a bit surprised that it was characterised as threat.”

Mrs Foster was attending the launch of a report at Stormont that examined the impact of one of the key planks of the DUP’s £1bn confidence-and-supply agreement with the Conservatives – a £150m investment in broadband coverage in Northern Ireland. She said her party had not been presented with any papers from the Government that suggested treating Northern Ireland differently.