DUP threaten to veto Boris’s ‘vague’ plan

THERESA May’s partners in government last night threatened to veto alternative Brexit plan backed by Eurosceptics Boris Johnson and David Davis.

In a significant move, the DUP said the Canada-style blueprint was ‘vague’ and ‘not something we would support’.

The plan, by the Institute for Economic Affairs think-tank, proposed a free-trade deal, coupled with checks on goods travelling between Northern Ireland and the Republic taking place away from the border.

Mr Johnson described the proposal as ‘a plan the EU would understand and respect,’ adding: ‘I’ve no doubt it would unite MPs and the country.’ But the DUP’s Brexit spokesman, Sammy Wilson, said the ‘vague language’ in the report left open the possibility of Northern Ireland being forced to follow EU regulations on goods while the rest of the UK diverged from Brussels.

He told the Belfast Newsletter this could ‘restrict our ability to sell to Great Britain’, potentially leaving Northern Ireland ‘divorced from our main market’. Mr Wilson said the proposal, which Brexiteers have dubbed ‘Plan A plus’, was ‘not something we would support’.

In a second blow to the proposal, former British home secretary Amber Rudd said more than 40 Tory MPs were ready to join forces with Labour to vote down any Canada-style deal in Parliament.

Ms Rudd told ITV’s Peston Show she believed the UK could end up with a Norway-style agreement, which would see the UK remain in the single market but operate under EU rules.

She said: ‘I reckon there are conservatively about 40 of us, who would not support a Canada-type deal.’

Ms Rudd also revealed she could back a second referendum if the Brexit talks reached an ‘impasse’.