Tag: Jeffrey Donaldson

Theresa May’s hopes that she can force her withdrawal deal through parliament faded on Monday after the Democratic Unionist party leader, Arlene Foster, rejected a personal plea for support. In a telephone call, Foster told the prime minister she would not change her party’s stance, which is to vote against the deal, if as expected it comes before the House of Commons this week. Support from the DUP is critical to May’s hopes of getting parliament to approve her Brexit plan. DUP leaders have been unimpressed with the way May and her team have negotiated with the EU, and believe they will have to be closely involved if the government is to leave with a deal that keeps Northern Ireland closely aligned with Britain. In unusually critical language, Dodds said last week: “The government has consistently settled for inferior compromises when they didn’t need to and when there was, and is, more negotiating with the EU to be done. An informed source said: “Confidence and supply two is nearly upon us. If anything, C&S2 will have to be even tighter than C&S1. Not talking about putting people in cabinet or anything like that, but deeply involved in every decision, especially on Brexit.” The party negotiated £1bn in spending for Northern Ireland as part of a first confidence and supply agreement with the Tories in 2017 – giving the government a working majority. Claims of splits in the DUP over whether to support May’s deal have been denied by the party. A DUP spokesman said: “The party is focused on securing a way forward as we exit the EU which respects the referendum result and protects the Union.