DUP trashes ‘pitiful’ deal

The Northern Irish party propping up British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government launched fresh attacks on her Brexit withdrawal deal yesterday, saying it would leave Britain in a “pitiful” place and that a Labour government may be preferable.

At its annual conference in Belfast, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) rallied its supporters to oppose May’s deal and invited her arch-rival in the Conservative Party, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, to address delegates.

“The published withdrawal agreement portrays a pitiful and pathetic place for the United Kingdom... locked into an EU straitjacket, divided and diminished,” deputy DUP leader Nigel Dodds told the conference.

“It will require the collective will not just of this party, but of all who value and cherish our precious Union, to stand firm in the face of the inevitable onslaught,” he said. “Prime Minister — bin the backstop!”