PRIME Minister May finished a round of talks with Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster yesterday afternoon without an agreement being reached.
There was no press conference immediately afterwards as May prepared to fly to France to talks with the French President Macron. Whitehall sources said that although there was broad agreement the deal was not yet completed.
Arlene Foster said on twitter: ‘The talks will be completed soon.’ Earlier in the day former Tory Prime Minister John Major, who played a role in the development of the peace talks in the north of Ireland, issued a warning to PM May about the implications of any deal with the DUP for peace in the north of Ireland.
Major said: ‘I am concerned about the deal, I am wary about it, I am dubious about it, both for Peace Process reasons but also for other reasons as well. That said, all my life I have been a Conservative, I very much want Mrs May to succeed as Prime Minister and to stay as Prime Minister – and I understand why she wishes to shore up her Parliamentary position.
‘That is entirely understandable and I sympathise, but. . . but, my main concern certainly is the Peace Process. A fundamental part of that Peace Process is that the UK government needs to be impartial between all the competing interests in Northern Ireland.
‘The Good Friday Agreement says the power of the sovereign government with jurisdiction be exercised with rigorous impartiality. That is entirely right and that was always the intention right from the start of the negotiations.
”And the danger is that no matter how much any government tries they will not be seen to be impartial if they are locked into a Parliamentary deal at Westminister with one of the Northern Ireland parties. And you never know in what unpredictable way events will turn out and we cannot know if that impartiality is going to be crucial at some stage in the future.’
Foster has rejected suggestions that the mooted deal could undermine a return to power-sharing arrangements at Stormont, saying a deal between her party and the Conservatives – who have informally been building links for some time – could be a ‘tremendous opportunity’ for Northern Ireland.
But Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, whose seven MPs will not take their seats in Westminster, has warned that no arrangement between the Conservatives and the DUP would be good for Northern Ireland. The English government have never been honest brokers – ever,’ he said.
