PM to offer DUP a ‘Stormont Lock’

THERESA May is preparing to offer significant Brexit concessions to the DUP to win their support for her deal, it emerged last night.

In the coming days, the Prime Minister is expected to promise legislation for a ‘Stormont Lock’ – named after the parliament building in Belfast. It would give the Ulster assembly a veto over the decision to enter the backstop if Britain and the EU failed to strike a post-Brexit free trade deal. The lock could also guarantee that any Brussels regulations applied to Northern Ireland would be extended to the whole of the UK – to prevent the need for regulatory checks on goods passing between Great Britain and the province.

In her letter to Donald Tusk, the PM highlighted ‘further domestic proposals’ which would ‘protect our internal market given the concerns expressed about the backstop’. The guarantee would be written into British law rather than the Withdrawal Agreement, which the EU has refused to reopen.

The assembly has been suspended since 2017 following a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

The support of the DUP would give Mrs May a huge boost. As well as securing ten votes from DUP MPs, it would also encourage several of the hardline Brexiteers to back her.