DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds has savaged Boris Johnson for breaking his word on Brexit in an excoriating speech.
He accused heckling Tories of not reading the new Brexit deal properly as he insisted it creates both a customs and single market border down the Irish Sea.
Mr Dodds - whose 10 MPs have voted to block the deal - recalled Theresa May ’s promise that this was something no UK Prime Minister could ever do.
And crucially he pointed out that Mr Johnson promised at the DUP conference that he'd honour this pledge - saying just weeks ago: "No British Conservative government could or should sign up to any such arrangement."
MPs fell silent as he said of the deal: “It drives a coach and horses through the Belfast Agreement [the Good Friday peace deal].
“It was once said that no British Prime Minister could ever agree to such terms.
“And indeed those who sought the leadership of the Tory party said that at our conference.
“Will he now abide by that and please reconsider the fact that we must leave as one nation together.
“There may be special circumstances for Northern Ireland but that can only be with the consent of the people of Northern Ireland - unionist and nationalist together.
“He must respect that.”
Labour MP Angela Eagle also pointed out the PM’s statement to the DUP conference.
She asked “why on earth anyone in the country let alone anyone in this place will ever believe a reassurance he ever gives ever again?”
And Labour MP Tan Dhesi accused the PM of selling the DUP "down the river".
Yet the PM claimed she was “simply wrong - there will be no border down the Irish Sea”.
“There will be some customs checks, yes,” he admitted. But he said “there will be no tariffs, there will be a single united customs union between all four nations of the UK.”
It came as Parliament sat on a Saturday for the first time since 1982 to approve or reject Boris Johnson ’s Brexit deal.
At the same time, tens or hundreds of thousands of protesters were set to descend on Westminster demanding a second referendum – a “People’s Vote”.
But the vote risked becoming a total damp squib after MP Oliver Letwin - and put off the final decision until later.
That prompted No10 to threaten to pull or sit out the vote to avoid handing a symbolic victory to the expelled Tory and his Labour allies.
as victory hinged on just a few Labour MPs in Leave seats.
Last night Boris Johnson unveiled a last-minute offer on workers’ rights after his deal watered them down. But it was slammed by Labour’s leadership and the TUC as not worth the paper it’s written on.
Boris Johnson began speaking in the Commons at 9.30am with the final vote expected this afternoon.
- Read our explainer on what's in the deal here , and our or
