DUP looms as last hurdle to Brexit passage

Negotiators for Boris Johnson were engaged in talks with the DUP on the Brexit deal the British PM has struck with Brussels.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster, centre, flanked by Deputy Leader Nigel Dodds, left, and MP Jeffrey Donaldson. Picture: AFP

Negotiators for Boris Johnson were engaged in talks on Thursday night with the Democratic Unionist Party on the Brexit deal the British Prime Minister has struck with Brussels.

Mr Johnson’s plans were dealt a heavy blow when his Conservative Party’s partner, the DUP, said on Thursday morning it couldn’t support the deal “as things stand’’ because of the wording on Customs­ and consent issues and a lack of clarity on the tax regime.

DUP leaders Arlene Foster and Nigel Dodds have heaped pressure on the EU to back down on their demands for further concessions­ to those Mr Johnson had put forward with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in talks last Thursday.

Hours before a summit of all 28 EU national leaders, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted: “We have one! It’s a fair and balanced agreement for the EU and the UK and it is testament to our commitment to find solutions.”

Mr Johnson tweeted that the two sides had struck a “great new deal” and urged MPs to ratify it on Saturday. “We’ve got a great new deal that takes back control,” the Prime Minister said.

European Council president Donald Tusk said earlier there were some delays coming from the British side — believed to be the hesitancy of the DUP to agree to the deal. The DUP had backed the two-border, four-year transition ­period proposal developed by Mr Johnson to deal with the Irish border problem.

However, the EU had insisted on a Customs border in the Irish Sea, which would separate Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain and is unacceptable to the DUP.

While Mr Johnson has tried to ensure Northern Ireland leaves the EU with the rest of Britain and would be in a UK-wide Customs area, in practice EU rules would apply to any goods that travelled through Ulster.

The idea is to apply the system for four years, after which Northern Ireland would either continue with the ­arrangement or opt out. If it opted out, there would be a two-year cooling-off period and an alternative way would have to be found of avoiding the hard border and honouring the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, that ended The Troubles.

Further complicating the matter is that Northern Ireland’s legislature at Stormont has not sat since January 2017 because of a dispute between the DUP and Sinn Fein and there is uncertainty how Northern Ireland can approve future Brexit-related issues over the Customs arrangements.

The DUP said just hours before the EU was readying to announce the deal in Brussels to EU ambassadors: “As things stand, we could not support what is being suggested on Customs and consent issues, and there is a lack of clarity on Value Added Tax’.

“We will continue to work with the government to try to get a sensible deal that works for Northern Ireland and protects the economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom.”

The DUP has 10 votes and Mr Johnson will need 320 to get the deal over the line in the House of Commons in a special sitting on Saturday, the first in 37 years. Even if the DUP comes on board, he faces a difficult sales pitch to win over enough Labour MPs and Tory Remainers.

Mr Johnson told his backbench MPs on Wednesday evening that he was standing on the Hillary Step but the summit was shrouded in mist, in a reference to the gnarly final push up Mount Everest to get a Brexit deal.

The EU had been looking to move the Brexit discussions from the first item on their two-day summit agenda that started on Thursday to Friday afternoon to allow more time for the negotiators.

The EU was also planning to agree to a deal in principle and then have it ratified at an extraordinary meeting closer to the October 31 deadline.

In turn, this would mean any deal presented to Westminster on Saturday could be an indicative vote only, with full confirmation also required after EU ratification.