WE’LL BLOCK DE AL IF IT SPLITS UK – DUP
There’ll be ‘consequences’ if Ulster is treated differently, says Foster
ARLENE Foster last night warned Theresa May she faces ‘ consequences’ if she fails to stick to her Brexit promises on Northern Ireland.
In a dramatic escalation of tensions, the Democratic Unionist Party leader said the DUP could block the deal. Mrs Foster said last night: ‘We had a frank meeting tonight with the Prime Minister. She is fully aware of our concerns.’
The ten DUP MPs prop up the Government through a formal ‘confidence and supply’ deal that obliges them to vote for the Budget, the Queen’s Speech and Brexit legislation. But the party said there was ‘serious trouble’ with the deal, and accused Mrs May of allowing the European Union to ‘administer a punishment beating’ on the UK in Brexit negotiations.
Speaking in Westminster before her meeting with the Prime Minister, Mrs Foster said the DUP would vote against any deal that ‘broke up the United Kingdom’.
She added: ‘The Prime Minister has been very clear in relation to our position right throughout the process and just to be clear, we wrote to her on November 1 setting out the position.
‘If she decides to go against that, if she decides to go against herself – because on many, many occasions she stood up in this very place and said she will not break up the United Kingdom, there will be no difference between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK – if she decides to go against all that, then there will be consequences.
‘Of course there will be consequences. We could not as Unionists support a deal that broke up the United Kingdom.’
Mrs Foster voiced her frustration
‘Fundamental for us’
that the DUP had not been allowed to see the draft of the deal before it was debated by Cabinet.
DUP chief whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson warned that the agreement would in the ‘ long term’ leave Northern Ireland closely aligned with the EU and could increase support for Scottish independence, saying ‘this is not the right Brexit’.
He told the BBC that the Unionist party ‘don’t fear a general election’, when asked whether it would risk having Jeremy Corbyn, a long-term supporter of a united Ireland, as prime minister. Sir Jeffrey said: ‘It’s not about who is prime minister, it’s not about who governs the country – it’s about the constitutional and economic integrity of the UK, that is fundamental for us.
‘And it is not just us – the DUP does not stand alone on this. We have many friends within the Conservative Party and indeed in some other parties, who believe this deal has the potential to lead to the break-up of the UK.’
DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said there was ‘serious trouble’ with the deal ‘because it ties the UK as a whole to the customs union... and it treats Northern Ireland differently to the rest of the UK by tying us now and for ever to the EU rulebook’. But Mr Wilson faced criticism for comparing the draft agreement to a ‘punishment beating’.
Vigilante attacks carried out by paramilitaries in Northern Ireland during the Troubles were commonly referred to as punishment beatings. The assaults are still a regular occurrence.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Wilson said: ‘This is all about a punishment beating for the UK because they dared to vote to leave the EU. And unfortunately the Prime Minister has allowed that punishment beating to be administered.’
Liberal Democrat Northern Ireland spokesman Alistair Carmichael criticised Mr Wilson’s choice of language, saying: ‘Sammy Wilson’s analogy is completely unacceptable and potentially dangerous.
‘Many will read his words as being a clear reference to paramilitary violence and intimidation used during the Troubles by terrorist groups. Politicians set the tone. In this time of division and rancour we must debate with respect and care.’