DUP could vote against UK budget if Brexit red lines are breached - reports
LONDON (Reuters) - The DUP, the Northern Irish unionist party that props up Theresa May’s government, could vote against this month’s UK budget if the prime minister breaches the party’s red lines over Brexit at an EU summit, the BBC and Sky News said on Wednesday.
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May greets supporters after her speech at the Conservative Party conference at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham, Britain October 3, 2018. Stefan Rousseau/Pool via Reuters
May relies on the support of the Democratic Unionist Party on major votes after she lost her governing Conservative Party’s majority at an election last year. Budget votes have traditionally been seen as votes of confidence in a government.
Just six months before Britain is due to leave the European Union, May’s negotiations with the bloc are under scrutiny from all sides of the Brexit debate, with the DUP concerned that any deal may effectively split Northern Ireland from the mainland.
On Tuesday, Nigel Dodds, deputy leader of the DUP, warned the government not to repeat “that mistake” from December - when the party almost pulled the rug out from an interim accord with the EU by scuppering a proposal on regulatory alignment between the bloc and the province.
DUP leader Arlene Foster has said there is “only one red line” in the Brexit talks, ruling out her party’s support for any arrangement “which could give rise to either customs or regulatory barriers within the UK internal market”.
The BBC and Sky News, without citing sources, reported that the DUP could vote against the budget on Oct. 29 if a deal meant new barriers between the British province and the rest of the United Kingdom.
The DUP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
May and her Brexit minister Dominic Raab have repeatedly said Britain cannot accept any deal that fails to protect the integrity of Britain.
Reporting by Elizabeth Piper; editing by Stephen Addison
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