May starts DUP talks in bid to keep power
Print Edition
BRITISH Prime Minister Theresa May began talks yesterday to form an alliance with Northern Ireland’s ultra-conservative Democratic Unionist Party.
She needs DUP support to cling to power after her election fiasco, leaving the European Union’s Brexit negotiator wondering when divorce talks will begin.
Days after May lost her parliamentary majority in a failed electoral gamble, the premier welcomed the leader of the DUP to Downing Street in a bid to gain the support of its 10 MPs.
May hopes with their backing her Conservative party will again command the majority it lost in last Thursday’s election.
The arrival of the DUP’s Arlene Foster followed a cabinet meeting, during which ministers went over plans “to deliver the best possible Brexit deal.”
Also on the cabinet’s agenda were the talks to secure an alliance where the DUP backs the Conservatives on a vote-by-vote basis in parliament, rather than a formal coalition government.
Foster said her party would go into the talks “with the national interest at heart.”
Dublin concerned
The prospect of a deal has caused consternation in Dublin, with Irish premier Enda Kenny warning such an alliance could upset Northern Ireland’s fragile peace.
London’s neutrality is key to the delicate balance of power in Northern Ireland, which was once plagued by violence over Britain’s control of the province.
May has dismissed calls to resign following the dismal election result and on Monday faced her MPs and vowed to govern. “I got us into this mess, and I’m going to get us out,” she said.
In calling a general election three years early, May had hoped to boost her slim majority ahead of the Brexit talks starting later this month. But a lackluster campaign saw her high approval rating slip away and support for her “hard Brexit” strategy — pulling out of the European single market and customs union — now hangs in the balance.
The EU’s negotiator Michel Barnier dismissed the suggestion of postponing the negotiations and said such a delay would only prompt further instability.
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