The DUP fear the break up of the UK.
DUP leader Arlene Foster has said that Theresa May is “fully aware” of the DUP’s position and their concerns following the release of the UK Prime Minister’s draft Brexit plan.
Theresa May’s cabinet backed her Brexit withdrawal agreement following a “long, detailed and impassioned debate” on Wednesday evening.
The agreement, which discusses Northern Ireland from page 302 to 327, suggests that goods from Northern Ireland will be labelled differently from goods in the rest of the UK.
Article 8 states:
‘Where provisions of Union law made applicable by this Protocol provide for the indication of a Member State, including in abbreviated form, as markings, labelling, tags, or by any other means, the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland shall be indicated as “UK(NI)” or “United Kingdom(Northern Ireland)”. Where provisions of Union law made applicable by this protocol provide for the indication in the form of a numeric code, the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland shall be indicated with a distinguishable numeric code.’
This indicates there will be specific laws applicable to the single market in Northern Ireland, but not applicable to the rest of the UK as part of the agreement.
Following the publication of this plan, the DUP leader released the following message on Twitter.
We had a frank meeting tonight with the Prime Minister lasting almost an hour. She is fully aware of our position and concerns.
— Arlene Foster DBE PC #ProudofNI. (@ArleneFosterUK) November 14, 2018
Earlier in the afternoon, Foster had warned about the consequences for Theresa May if she put forward a deal which treats Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK
Foster said: “If she decides to go against that, if she decides to go against herself – because on many, many occasions she stood up in this very place and said she will not break up the United Kingdom, there will be no difference between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK – if she decides to go against all that, then there will be consequences.
The DUP is currently propping up the Conservative Government via their confidence-and-supply agreement.
With regards to Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon has branded the draft Brexit deal agreed by May’s Cabinet as one that “puts Scotland at a serious competitive disadvantage.”
Not long off call with PM. She tried to tell me Scotland’s ‘distinctive’ interests had been protected. I pointed out that there isn’t a single mention of Scotland in the agreement, that it disregards our interests, and puts Scotland at a serious competitive disadvantage.
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) November 14, 2018
As reported by PA, Sturgeon likened the deal to being “blackmailed into a choice between the frying pan or the fire.”
She added: “It is obvious that the Prime Minister can barely unite her Cabinet on this deal and it is also increasingly clear that she will struggle to get a majority for it in Parliament. In these circumstances it is more important than ever that we are not faced with a false choice between a bad deal and no deal.
“No-one should be effectively blackmailed into a choice between the frying pan or the fire. This proposed deal would be a bad one for Scotland, taking us out of a single market eight times the size of the UK market alone and posing a huge threat to jobs, investment and living standards. If this deal is indeed rejected by Parliament, then the UK Government must return to the negotiating table to secure a better one.”
“Our bottom line – short of continued EU membership – is continued, permanent membership of the single market and customs union.”
The British Prime Minister will launch her attempt to sell the draft Brexit deal to her Cabinet in the House of Commons today.
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