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发帖数: 17225 | 1 May reaches deal with DUP to form government after shock election result
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/09/theresa-may-reaches-deal-
with-dup-to-form-government-after-shock-election-result-northern-ireland
Theresa May has struck a deal with the Democratic Unionists that will allow
her to form a government, sources have confirmed.
The prime minister is expected to see the Queen at about 12.30pm on Friday
to confirm that a deal is in place.
It follows extensive talks with the DUP late into the night. Party figures
say they have been driven on by their dismay at the possibility of Jeremy
Corbyn becoming prime minister.
DUP figures insist their relationship with May’s team has been close since
she became prime minister 11 months ago.
A DUP source said: “We want there to be a government. We have worked well
with May. The alternative is intolerable. For as long as Corbyn leads Labour
, we will ensure there’s a Tory PM.”
There has been no decision as yet on whether there will be a formal
coalition between the Conservatives and the DUP or if they will operate on a
“confidence and supply” arrangement – whereby the unionists would
support a minority government on vital matters in return for some of their
policies being enacted.
It has been reported that the two parties do not believe it necessary to
enter a formal coalition to govern.
Senior DUP figures claim they moved quickly to form an agreement to stop any
chance of Corbyn entering No 10 because of his and John McDonnell’s past
support for Sinn Féin and the IRA.
“The two parties [Labour and DUP] have worked well together for two years.
There’s no reason to suppose they won’t continue to do so in future. But
the point made time after time to Labour MPs remains: for as long as you
allow yourselves to be led by an IRA cheerleader, you exclude yourselves
from entering No 10,” said a DUP source.
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How the 2017 election night unfolded … in under 3 minutes
The DUP’s “price” for propping up a new Tory government will include a
promise that there will be no post-Brexit special status for Northern
Ireland, the party’s leader in Westminster has confirmed.
Nigel Dodds, re-elected as MP for Belfast North, said that among the DUP’s
conditions would be an insistence that there be no separate deal that keeps
the region with one foot still in the EU.
The DUP fears that special status after Brexit – a key demand of Sinn Féin
– would de-couple Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
Live General election 2017: May strikes deal with DUP to form UK government
- live
PM to ask Queen’s permission to form government following election that
resulted in hung parliament and surge in support for Labour
Read more
The party will return to the House of Commons with 10 seats and in all
likelihood will only support a Tory administration, Dodds said.
With one eye on the Brexit negotiations that begin within the next 10 to 11
days, Dodds said: “There are special circumstances in Northern Ireland and
we will try to make sure these are recognised. As regards demands for
special status within the European Union, no. Because that would create
tariffs and barriers between Northern Ireland and our single biggest market,
which is the rest of the United Kingdom.
“While we will focus on the special circumstances, geography and certain
industries of Northern Ireland we will be pressing that home very strongly.
Special status, however, within the European Union is a nonsense. Dublin
doesn’t support it. Brussels doesn’t support it. The member states of the
EU would never dream of it because it would open the door to a Pandora’s
box of independence movements of all sorts. The only people who mentioned
this are Sinn Féin.”
The DUP backed Brexit in last year’s EU referendum campaign and regards as
sacrosanct the overall UK decision to leave.
Sinn Féin has argued that because the Northern Ireland electorate voted by
56% to remain within Europe last year and the region will be the only one
with a post-Brexit land border with the EU, the area should have special
designated status.
When asked about what form of deal the DUP would consider, Dodds ruled out
taking ministerial seats in a new Conservative-led cabinet. Rather, the DUP
is likely to back the Tories in confidence motions and support Conservative
budgets.
“No, I am not thinking in those terms, I have to say,” Dodds said when
asked about taking a cabinet seat before joking that he would like to be
secretary of state for Northern Ireland.
Sinn Féin was the other major winner in the local general election battle,
winning seven seats and wiping out its nationalist rival the SDLP, which
lost all three of its Westminster seats.
However, Corbyn would not be able to rely on the support of the seven Sinn F
éin MPs as the party will continue its historical policy of boycotting
Westminster.
Late on Thursday night, Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin president, said his MPs
would not be going to the House of Commons.
A senior Sinn Féin spokesman later told the Guardian there “wasn’t a
snowball’s chance in hell” of the party ditching its abstentionism
regarding Westminster. |
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