DUP MPs warn Brexit talks could endanger party's deal with Tories

[muriel_volestrangler]

DUP MPs have told senior government officials in Downing Street that any Brexit deal giving Northern Ireland a separate customs or trade regime from the rest of the UK would jeopardise the deal that keeps Theresa May in power.

The Conservatives’ minority government is propped up by the DUP’s 10 MPs, in a confidence and supply arrangement that sees them back the Tories in key votes.

But senior DUP figures demanded a meeting on Thursday after reports that the government was preparing to agree that trading relations in areas such as agriculture and energy would remain harmonised between Northern Ireland and the EU after Brexit.

One DUP MP, Sammy Wilson, said publicly that any move to “placate” the Irish government and the EU – by seeking to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union, for example – could see the DUP withdraw its support.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/30/mp-sammy-wilson-warns-brexit-talks-endanger-tory-dup-deal-northern-ireland

The fundamental problem the DUP has is that it was too stupid and blinkered to think through its support of Brexit. It fell for the "have our cake and eat it" claims of Boris Johnson, without considering the border problems. Northern Irish voters were more intelligent, which is why they voted Remain, even though Unionists continue to get a majority of the vote in elections. Now the DUP are having to make threats, without being able to suggest a workable solution.

[Denzil_DC]

1. Well, that would be an awful shame.

Have they actually got the £1 billion they were promised yet? Last I heard, they hadn't and it was being challenged in court, could even have to be voted through parliament at some unspecified date in the future.

You should always get that sort of thing in writing, preferably in (somebody else's) blood, suckers.

BTW, I didn't think this was worth an OP, but I guess it's related:

Ireland's govt 'told to ignore Boris Johnson' by Foreign Office

...

Sky News has learnt that Foreign Office officials told Ireland's Government "not to listen to whatever he had to say" ahead of Mr Johnson's visit to Dublin a few weeks ago.

Extraordinarily, officials in Whitehall were very open with their counterparts in the Irish capital to "ignore the public utterances" of Britain's chief diplomat.

Mr Johnson visited Dublin on 17 November to meet with Simon Coveney, Ireland's foreign minister and now also deputy prime minister, for Brexit discussions ahead of next month's critical European Council summit in Brussels.

...

Ahead of the visit, Irish officials were told "not to mind a word of what he says" - implying the Foreign Secretary was not speaking on behalf of the UK Government.

https://news.sky.com/story/irelands-govt-told-to-ignore-boris-johnson-by-foreign-office-11150411

A Foreign Office spokesperson denies it happened, as does the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, so either Sky News is making things up or there's some deep counter-briefing going on.

[T_i_B]

2. I was considering posting that as an OP!

Although I will admit to having already posted threads about Boris Johnson being a total disaster as foreign secretary. I'm certainly not complaining about you posting it Denzil!

As to the Irish problem in the negotiations to leave the EU, it's a problem that is not going to go away, and it is extremely difficult to see a workable solution. Especially with the British government being in cloud cuckoo land.

[Denzil_DC]

3. I didn't do so as the denials from both sides are so categoric.

Yeah, I know, "They would, wouldn't they?"

I'd class it as scuttlebutt at the moment, and invoke the No Smoke Without Fire Clause.

Put it this way: if true, the civil service's stock would increase in my eyes. May's for keeping the twit in post, not so much.