Theresa May warned by DUP she could go if ‘red lines’ are crossed on EU border deal

Pic:Theresa May with the DUP's Arlene Foster ( PA )
Political reporter(wp/es):

Theresa May’s allies in the Democratic Unionist Party today said any Brexit breakdown of the pact propping up the Government could fall “on the head of the Prime Minister”.

Sources in the Northern Ireland party indicated that a change of Tory leader, rather than a general election, could result if Downing Street accepts a deal with the EU that would see the Province remain subject to European rules while the rest of the UK breaks away.

Their warning came as a senior Conservative MP said a leadership contest could be completed in “days” if necessary.

Mark Pritchard, a former secretary of the 1922 Committee which would be in charge of the process, tweeted: “Lots of wild and loose talk about leadership moves. There is no vacancy. 

“However, on a technical point, if a vacancy did arise process need not take more than 2 working weeks — 4 days in Commons (if needed) and 6 days with membership — does not need to be an overly long process.”

Mrs May was due to bring together senior ministers for a meeting this evening where insiders think she aims to “bind” key figures into a possible deal that would keep Britain in a form of customs union and also mean extra regulatory checks on goods from the mainland to Northern Ireland.

A Whitehall source said: “I think it is all about getting people over the line whom she thinks might be the biggest risk.”  

Among ministers expected to attend were Brexit-backers Michael Gove and Liam Fox, but not Commons leader Andrea Leadsom or Transport Secretary Chris Grayling.

Brexit negotiations are set to come to a head next week at an EU summit where Mrs May will be under pressure to agree an Irish “backstop” that the DUP sees as tantamount to keeping the Province in the single market, including remaining subject to European Court rulings.

Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson went further than the party’s threat to vote down the Budget by saying it could refuse to support social and welfare legislation as well.

“We are hoping that the Government will deliver on the promises it made not to accept any arrangements that would make Northern Ireland separate from the UK,” he told the Standard. “The signs are not good at present.”

A party source said the DUP would look like “patsies” if it failed to make a stand. Responding to claims from some government insiders that it would risk a general election and a Jeremy Corbyn victory, the DUP source said: “Will responsibility simply fall on the head of the Prime Minister? Could it result in a change of leader, or could it result in the Government falling? It will depend on how the Government react to such a hypothetical vote.”

Former Conservative prime minister John Major said the “bullying” behaviour of dissident Brexiteers towards Mrs May was worse than the anti-Maastricht rebels he famously dubbed “bastards”.

“I have great sympathy for her plight and I think the way she has been treated by some of her colleagues has been absolutely outrageous,” he told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast.

“People in Parliament who are undermining the Prime Minister by wandering round saying we are going to have 40-odd signatures for a leadership election tomorrow, saying unless the Prime Minister does this thing or that thing we are going to vote against it, that’s an intolerable way to treat a Prime Minister who is in the middle of negotiations.”

Labour ex-premier Tony Blair said the DUP were asking the impossible because they could not have both an open border with the Republic and different trade rules.

Former Cabinet minister and Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith urged Mrs May to “listen very carefully” to the DUP’s warnings. He insisted it was  “wholly feasible to have non-hard  borders” after Brexit.