DUP fires warning shot to May over Northern Ireland Brexit promise
Updated : 09:47
Northern Ireland's DUP fired a political shot across the government's bows in parliament as it warned that Theresa May had “seriously broken” promises about the treatment of Northern Ireland post-Brexit.
The DUP abstained from voting on a series of amendments to the Finance Bill on Monday night and supported an amendment proposed by Labour, which the party said was a gesture and not an attempt to influence policy.
“Since the government has not honoured its side of the bargain [over Brexit] we tonight tried to spell out some of the consequences of that,” Sammy Wilson, the DUP's Brexit spokesman, told the BBC.
Prime Minister May needs the DUP's 10 votes in order to have a majority in the House of Commons.
“The prime minister has undermined her own authority with her own party and with our party by blatantly breaking promises about what she would deliver in the Brexit deal with the European Union,” Wilson added.
Commentators noted that, under the Fixed Term Parliament Act, the DUP can only actually collapse the government if its MPs side with Labour and the other opposition parties to defeat May in a formal Commons vote of no-confidence.
May insists her draft EU withdrawal deal, which MPs will vote on next month in parliament, is the best that the country can get. European leaders are set to sign off the draft withdrawal agreement and framework of future relations in Brussels next month.
Nevertheless, not only are Labour and many of her own MPs against the Brexit deal, but there were also rumblings of discontent on the Continent. The Spanish government said it would vote against the deal unless conditions for Gibraltar are changed, while France dug its heels in over fishing rights, The Times reported.
May also faces internal pressure as she is still the target of backbench critics within her party, who are intent on forcing a confidence vote on her leadership. To trigger the contest, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives Sir Graham Brady, has to receive 48 letters.