Theresa May ‘Did Not Even Ask Brussels To Scrap The Backstop’, Arlene Foster Claims

DUP MPs will vote down Theresa May’s Brexit deal over the Northern Irish backstop, Arlene Foster has said, accusing the PM of failing to even ask Brussels to scrap the controversial clause. 

Ahead of Parliament’s crunch vote on the prime minister’s Brexit proposal on Tuesday evening, the DUP leader said the party would defy its confidence-and-supply deal with the Conservative Party, which May relies on for a majority.

“We have to have a deal that does not break up the United Kingdom,” Foster said during a press conference with former Brexit secretaries Dominic Raab and David Davis, claiming that the current deal “separates Northern Ireland from Britain in a very real way”.

“There is no need for the backstop,” she continued, saying it was a “bit of nonsense” to talk about a hard border.

“To suggest that we will return to the borders of the past when the borders of the past were there for a completely different reason. They were there to stop terrorists, they were there to stop the flow of Semtex as opposed to the flow of powdered milk.”

Foster told the audience she had deja vu about coming to London to argue against the backstop, having done so ahead of the pulled meaningful vote in December.

“We said to the prime minister she had to get rid of the backstop and get a withdrawal agreement that can be lived with. I don’t think she even asked to get rid of the backstop,” the Northern Irish leader accused, saying the European Union had “held the pen” during negotiations.

“We should go to them with a better deal,” she added.