The Brexit-supporting Northern Irish party propping up Theresa May’s minority government has rejected concessions to the European Union (EU) which could have left Brits subject to EU judges for years.
The Prime Minister had reportedly persuaded EU bosses to drop their insistence on splitting up the United Kingdom and separating Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain’s Home Nations with customs checks in a so-called “customs compromise”.
Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists Party (DUP) had threatened to vote down the budget if the UK was divided in this way. Mrs May proposed to keep the entire UK tied to the EU’s Customs Union as a compromise, while Brussels was pressing for Northern Ireland to be subject to Single Market regulations as well.
Throwing this “compromise” out, the DUP’s Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said: “If Northern Ireland is subject to EU Single Market regulations, then it will also be subject to the [European Court of Justice] in some form as the arbiter of those regulations.
“This position leaves Northern Ireland a rule taker from Brussels. We’re confident we can get a good deal, good for all four corners of the United Kingdom.”
The Democratic Unionist Party "Saves Brexit": @NigelDoddsDUP warns of "aggressive" Republic of Ireland, says "We were right to Leave the EU" https://t.co/VEOq0WAmaK
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 5, 2017
Mrs May has reportedly dispatched three Cabinet ministers to Dublin and Belfast in an attempt to quell resistance to her latest Brexit plan.
The Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, is in talks with Northern Irish politicians whilst Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington and Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley went to the Republic of Ireland’s capital of Dublin.
However, despite the latest “compromise,” Mr Raab once again could not rule out some regulatory differences between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, which the DUP could also reject.
After the talks in Dublin, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said a deal in November might still be possible, but further progress is required and “we aren’t quite there yet,” the Sun reports.
Brexit: Only 22 Percent of Northern Irish Back Leaving Britain to Join EU Ireland https://t.co/du03ZuNQNf
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 15, 2018
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