The Democratic Unionist party has rejected Theresa May’s bid for support for her Brexit deal, in another serious setback for the prime minister.
Hours after the attorney general revealed that his legal advice over the Irish backstop remained “unchanged”, the party said it would not be supporting her at Tuesday night’s crunch vote.
Their decision could have a devastating domino effect on the outcome of the vote with many in the Eurosceptic European Research Group led by Jacob Rees-Mogg likely to vote the same way as the DUP.
What was added to May's withdrawal agreement?
Joint interpretative instrument
A legal add-on to the withdrawal agreement. It gives legal force to a letter from Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, the presidents of the commission and council, given to May in January. This stated the EU’s intention to negotiate an alternative to the backstop so it would not be triggered, or, if it was triggered, to get out of it as quickly as possible.
Unilateral statement from the UK
Sets out the British position that, if the backstop was to become permanent and talks on an alternative were going nowhere, the UK believes it would be able to exit the arrangement.
Additional language in political declaration
Emphasises the urgency felt on both sides to negotiate an alternative to the backstop, and flesh out what a technological fix would look like. However, this has failed to persuade the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, who said that while it 'reduces the risk' of the UK being trapped in a backstop indefinitely, it does not remove it.
Daniel Boffey
The Conservative MP Sir Mike Penning said the decision to vote against May was a body blow to May.
“That’s really disappointing, because a lot of colleagues were looking to follow the DUP through the lobbies if they were happy with the backstop,” he told Sky News.
The ERG’s “star chamber of lawyers”, which includes the DUP’s Westminster leader, Nigel Dodds, has already said it will not recommend its members vote for May’s deal.
“We are going to vote against the government on this,” DUP MP Sammy Wilson confirmed.
In a statement, the DUP said “sufficient progress” had not been made to address its fears that it could be trapped in a permanent alignment with the EU and attacked the EU for being “intransigent”.
“We recognise that the prime minister has made limited progress in her discussions with the European Union. However, in our view sufficient progress has not been achieved at this time.
“It is clear that the risks remain that the UK would be unable to lawfully exit the backstop were it to be activated,” it said.
Quizzing the attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, in the House of Commons, Dodds said that under Monday night’s Strasbourg deal, “provided there is not bad faith” behaviour from the EU in future negotiations, the UK and Northern Ireland could be “trapped” in the backstop.
At one point, it was believed that May could have been within 20 votes of winning a parliamentary majority for her Brexit deal if she can gain assurances from the EU that will persuade the DUP to back her deal.
One commentator in Ireland said he believed the party could ultimately be persuaded to vote for May’s deal because of the “importance” of money to their loyal case of voters.
Tommie Gorman, Ireland's Northern Ireland editor, says he thinks DUP will "hedge their bets"...won't support May tonight. But ultimately will switch. "The DUP know the importance of money. there will be resettlement money, disturbance money not just from W'minster but also EU.."
— lisa o'carroll (@lisaocarroll) March 12, 2019
The DUP said it would “support the right deal”, arguing it was “possible to reach a sensible deal which works for the United Kingdom and the European Union but it will require all sides to be reasonable and in deal-making mode”.
