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The Democratic Unionist Party has dealt Theresa May ’s Brexit deal another mortal blow by announcing not enough “progress” has been made to support it.
The Ulster party, which props up the Tories in power, pointed to the attorney general’s legal advice that the UK still risked being trapped in the Irish backstop .
“We recognise that the prime minister has made limited progress in her discussions with the European Union,” a statement said.
“However, in our view sufficient progress has not been achieved at this time.”
The statement left open that the 10 DUP MPs might abstain in tonight’s vote, rather than vote against – but either decision would leave the prime minister facing another heavy defeat.
The announcement came shortly after the hardline European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tories also rejected her revised deal.
Show all 12 1 /12Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Derry, Londonderry A garage door displaying unionism, bolted shut, like a visual representation of Brexit Britain, locked to outsiders, safeguarding what’s inside
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Derry, Londonderry Rossville Street, the site of Bloody Sunday, where messages demand a severance with England. From this perspective, Britain is England in sheep’s clothing, the real empire, the centre of colonial power
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Bangor A political message in paint not yet dry, still forming, setting, adjusting, or in old paint finally eroding, melting away
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Bangor Moral judgement frames a residential view. The message seeks to make everybody involved in the religious narrative: those who don’t believe are those most in debt
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Castlerock The beach is sparse and almost empty, but covered in footprints. The shower is designed to wash off sand, and a mysterious border cuts a divide through the same sand
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Belfast Two attempts to affect and care for the body. One stimulated by vanity and social norms and narratives of beauty, the other by a need to keep warm in the winter night
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Belfast The gate to an unclaimed piece of land, where nothing is being built, where no project is in the making, where a sign demands the creation of something new
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Derry, Londonderry Under a motorway bridge a woman’s face stares, auburn and red-lipped, her skin tattooed with support for the IRA and a message of hostility to advocates of the Social Investment Fund
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Derry, Londonderry The Fountain Murals, where the curbs and the lampposts are painted the red, white, and blue of the Union Flag. A boy walks past in the same colours, fitting the scene, camouflaged
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Coleraine A public slandering by the football fields, for all to see or ignore. I wonder if it’s for the police or for the community
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Belfast A tattoo parlour, where the artist has downed tools, momentarily, bringing poise to the scene, which looks like a place of mourning, not a site of creation
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Britain Before Brexit: Northern Ireland Derry, Londonderry A barrier of grey protects the contents of this shop, guarding it from the streets outside, but it cannot conceal it completely, and the colours of lust and desire and temptation cut through
Richard Morgan/The Independent
Its legal panel, set up to analyse the legal implications of the changes secured in Strasbourg, said they did not meet the government's own tests .
The DUP statement said the party would “support the right deal which respects the referendum result and Northern Ireland ’s place as an integral part of the United Kingdom”.
And it attacked the EU for being “intransigent”, warning it would “require all sides to be reasonable and in deal making mode”.
But it stated: “It is clear that the risks remain that the UK would be unable to lawfully exit the backstop were it to be activated.”
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